Introduction –  Oral squamous cell carcinoma has a great predisposition to produce metastasis in lymph nodes. In clinical practice, the treatment plan and prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma is mainly based on the primary tumor, regional lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis (TNM) staging system. However, this system does not provide any information on the biological characteristics and thus an aggressive clinical behavior of the tumor. There are many different grading system, out of which Broder’s, Anneroth’s & Bryne’s systems were correlated with regional lymph node metastasis.

Aims & Objective –  To study the grading of histological malignancy according to different grading classifications of biopsy specimens in relation to metastasis in the cervical lymph nodes.

Materials & methods –  A retrospective study of 2 years with 48 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma was taken. All cases were treated with wide excision of growth with radical neck dissection, registered between 2016 – 2018 in the Sunrise diagnostic lab, Gwalior were studied retrospectively.

Results – Surgical specimens of 21 metastasizing tumors were compared with 27 tumors which did not metastasize. Each case was graded according to: Broders‘ classification in the whole thickness of tumor, Anneroth’s multifactorial grading system and Bryne’s deep invasive cell grading system. Bryne’s deep invasive cell score showed significant relation with lymph node metastasis. Other grading methods failed to show significant relation with metastasis. Bryne’s deep invasive cell grading system in appropriate biopsy specimens would be of great value in predicting lymph node metastasis and treatment results of oral squamous cell carcinoma.