A silver colloid technique for nucleolar organizer regions (AgNOR) was applied to paraffin sections of maxillary sinus squamous cell carcinomas (MSSCC) of 25 patients. The patients were divided into two groups, one with MSSCC recurring in the primary lesion after treatment with radiotherapy, chemotherapy and for surgery and one without recurrence. Notable differences between the numbers of NOR in neoplastic epithelia and the normal mucosa were observed (P =0.0001), but there were no differences between the numbers of NOR in the recurrent and non‐recurrent carcinomas. This investigation found no prognostic importance in the number of AgNOR in MSSC