Proliferative verrucous leukoplakia: recognition and differentiation from conventional leukoplakia and mimics

Abstract

The majority of conventional leukoplakia remains constant and only a subset progress to high-grade dysplasia or invasive carcinoma. A less recognized form known as proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL) represents a unique progressive and elusive variant. Identifying patients with this form can only be achieved through the keen clinical observation of the temporal gross and histologic progression in individual patients with squamous cell carcinoma. The difficulty in the early diagnosis of PVL stems from the overlapping clinical and pathologic features with conventional multifocal leukoplakia with dysplasia. We present the current view on the clinicopathologic and biological characteristics of PVL and discuss their diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and management.

Keywords: lichen planus; oral leukoplakia; squamous dysplasia; squamous tumorigenesis; verrucous hyperplasia.