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. 2014 Mar;9(1):88-93.

Oral leukoplakia - an update

Ioanina Parlatescu  1 , Carmen Gheorghe  1 , Elena Coculescu  2 , Serban Tovaru  1
Affiliations

Oral leukoplakia - an update

Ioanina Parlatescu et al. Maedica (Bucur). 2014 Mar.

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper was to assess the current state of science on oral leukoplakia. Although it is considered a potentially malignant disorder the overall malignant progression of oral leukoplakia is of the order of 5% and even more. Nowadays there are no currently accepted markers to distinguish those that may progress to cancer from those that may not. The current golden standard is considered the presence of epithelial dysplasia on the tissue biopsy of the lesion. Proliferative verrucous leukoplakia is a rare form of OL which has multiple recurrences, is refractory to treatment and has malignant transformation in a short period. It is considered a true premalignant lesion. The management of oral leukoplakia varies from a "wait and see" attitude and topical chemopreventive agents to complete surgical removal.

Keywords: oral leukoplakia; potentially malignant disorder.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Homogenous leukoplakia of the lingual versant of the gingiva
Figure 2A
Figure 2A. Speckeled leukoplakia on the right retrocomisural mucosa in a hard smoker
Figure 2B
Figure 2B. Speckeled leukoplakia on the left retrocomisural mucosa in the same patient (Candidal leukoplakia)
Figure 3
Figure 3. Verrucous leukoplakia on the floor of the mouth
Figure 4
Figure 4. Nodular leukoplakia of the soft palate
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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