Sixteen autopsy cases of oral and maxillofacial squamous cell carcinoma were examined by the Nippon Dental University, School of Dentistry at Niigata, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery II from 1974 to 1992. The histological malignancy of initial biopsy specimens in the pretreatment period was evaluated by using the Anneroth classification (1987) and the relationship of the degree of histological malignancy with the distant organic metastases was examined. The following conclusions were reached. Autopsy was performed in 30 of 79 cases (38.0%). Sixteen squamous cell carcinomas were included in this study. Eleven (68.8 %) of these cases had distant metastasis. The most frequent distant metastasis site was the lung. The average of the Anneroth total scores of 16 squamous cell carcinomas was 15.8±2.2. Eight cases with a score of over 3 points for nuclear polymorphism, 3 cases with a score of 4 points for the number of mitoses, and 4 cases with a score of 4 points for the pattern of invasion had distant metastasis.