To decrease the morbidity and mortality of oral cancer, detection at an early stage is of utmost important. There is abundant evidence that tumour stroma plays a critical role during carcinogenesis by giving strength and a skeleton to the tumour cells. Many studies have been done to evaluate the nature of connective tissue stroma in different grades of OSCC but there is paucity of information regarding characteristics of the stroma in relation to the invading malignant epithelial cells and interdependence between stroma and tumor cells. The objective of the study was to analyze and compare the nature of connective tissue stroma in the vicinity of invading tumor islands in different grades of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Subjects and Methods: The study included thirty cases of different grades of histologically diagnosed OSCC and ten sections of normal buccal mucosa as a control group. Nature of collagen was analyzed using picrosirius polarization method. The results were tabulated and analyzed statistically. Results: Normal oral mucosa showed predominantly reddish birefringence. All cases of well differentiated OSCC showed reddish orange color. Nearly 70% moderately differentiated cases showed yellowish orange (YO) and 60% of poorly differentiated cases, showed greenish yellow (GY). Conclusion: Tumor cells have a role in determining the nature of the collagen fibers in tumor stroma of OSCC, probably with opposing effects on stromal behavior and hence both tumor cells and the nature of collagen fibers are significant in predicting prognosis.
