[The quantitative assessment of DNA in potentially cancerous cases of oral lichen]

The increased prevalence of all variants of oral lichen, both as a result of increasing frequency and improved knowledge of the pathologist, coupled with its greater trend to malignant transformation has focused the attention of researchers on the development of new technology that could help in the early detection of the precancerous lesion. DNA cytometric detection can be useful to detect the precancerous lesion when clinical and histological findings of the transformation are still absent. The early diagnosis of such lesions entitles to use a more aggressive treatment, both medical and surgical.