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A retrospective clinicopathological study on oral lichen planus and malignant transformation: analysis of 518 cases
Zheng-Yu Shen1, Wei Liu, Lai-Kuan Zhu
1Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Department of Oral Mucosal Diseases, Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Objective:
To investigate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of a relatively large cohort of patients with oral lichen planus (OLP) from eastern China.
Study Design:
A total of 518 patients with histologically confirmed OLP in a long-term follow-up period (6 months-21.5 years) were retrospectively reviewed in our clinic.
Results:
Of the 518 patients, 353 females and 165 males were identified. The average age at diagnosis was 46.3 years (range 9-81 years) with the buccal mucosa being the most common site (87.8%). At initial presentation, white lichen and red lichen was seen in 52.3% and 47.7% patients, respectively. Of these, 5 (0.96%) patients previously diagnosed clinically and histopathologically as OLP developed oral cancer. All of them were the females with no a history of smoking or alcohol use.
Conclusions:
Clinical features of eastern Chinese OLP patients were elucidated. Notably, approximately 1% of OLP developed into cancer, which provides further evidence of potentially malignant nature of OLP.