Morphometry As a Diagnostic Tool for Potentially Malignant Lesions

Area of Science:

• Oral pathology
• Oncology
• Cell biology

Background:

• Accurate diagnosis of potentially malignant oral lesions remains a challenge.
• Prognostic markers for predicting cancerous transformation are limited.
• Current methods often rely on established clinical and malignant changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish morphometric parameters of normal oral epithelium cells.
• To analyze cellular changes in Oral Leukoplakia (OL), Oral Verrucous Carcinoma (OVC), and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC).
• To identify potential diagnostic markers for oral cancer progression.

Main Methods:

• Morphometric analysis of parabasal and spinous cells from 40 patients.
• Inclusion of normal oral mucosa, OL, OVC, and OSCC groups.
• Measurement of cell area, cell diameter, nuclear area, nuclear diameter, and nuclear cytoplasmic ratio.
• Statistical analysis using one-way ANOVA and T-test.

Main Results:

• Significant increases in nuclear diameter, nuclear area, cell area, and nuclear cytoplasmic ratio were observed in OL, OVC, and OSCC compared to normal oral mucosa.
• A statistically significant decrease in cell diameter was noted in OL, OVC, and OSCC patients.
• These cellular and nuclear parameter changes were statistically significant.

Conclusions:

• Cellular and nuclear parameters demonstrate statistically significant alterations in oral potentially malignant and malignant lesions.
• These morphometric changes offer potential as diagnostic and prognostic indicators.
• Further research can validate these parameters for early cancer detection.