Intronic point mutations are rare and totally unknown for human laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). To explore the relationship of p53 gene intronic mutation to the development of human LSCC, DNA was extracted from both tumor tissues and matched normal tissues of 55 patients with LSCC in northeast of China. Polymerase chain reaction amplification-single strand conformational polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) combined with silver staining and DNA direct sequencing were used to detect mutations in exons 7～8 (p53E7 and p53E8) and introns 7～8 (p53I7 and p53I8) of p53 gene. The p53E7 mutation was detected in 17 out of 55 patients, and the p53I7 mutation in 21 patients. No mutation was found at p53E8 or p53I8 site. The difference between tumor group and paired normal group on the rates of both p53E7 and p53I7 mutations was statistically significant. The rate of p53I7 mutations in tumor tissue was higher than that of normal tissue, and so was that of p53E7. Sequence analysis revealed that most p53I7 mutations were at the nucleotides in the branch point sequence or the polypyrimidine tract in the 3′-splice acceptor site of the intron 7. The high incidence of p53 gene intronic mutation in LSCC indicates that genetic changes within the noncoding region of the p53 gene may serve as an alternative mechanism of activating the pathogenesis of human laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Mutations in the noncoding region of this gene should be further studied.