The steady-state native fluorescence spectra of extracts of normal mucosa as well as of different stages of oral lesion of the 7,12-dimethylbenz (a) anthracene (DMBA)-induced hamster cheek pouch carcinogenesis model have been measured and analysed at 405 nm excitation. The emission spectra were scanned from 430 to 700 nm to characterize the native fluorescence of endogenous porphyrin and other fluorophores under various tissue transformation conditions, such as hyperplasia, papilloma, early invasive carcinoma and well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Two ratio parameters, R1 = (I530/I620) and R2 = (I530/I630), are introduced to quantify the diagnostic potentiality. The ratio values were found to decrease as the stage of the cancer increases. The suggested critical values for both R1 and R2 for normal mucosa is above three, and the suggested critical value for tissues with lesion is less than three. It was also found that the values for R1 and R2 for well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma is less than one. The ratio parameter R2 is selected for discrimination between normal mucosa and oral lesions, as the difference in the R2 value between normal and DMBA-treated tissue is higher than that for R1.