Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) is a common malignancy. Treatment failure is mainly due to loco-regional disease recurrence. KAI1 is a newly discovered metastasis suppressor gene. Fifty-seven patients with primary OSCC underwent surgery alone or surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy. Immunohistochemical evaluation of KAI1/CD82 and p53 proteins was carried out on specimen obtained at surgery. Within neoplastic fields, KAI1/CD82 expression was downregulated and negative in 42/57 (73.7%) cases. p53 expression was positive in 26/57 (45.6%) cases. No correlation was noted between KAI1/CD82 and p53 expression or clinicopathological parameters. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models showed a correlation between KAI1/CD82 expression with disease free survival (P = 0.01, P = 0.009) and overall survival (P = 0.04, P = 0.053) respectively.