Long-term follow-up of oral epithelial dysplasia: A hospital based cross-sectional study

Background/purpose: Oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) is characterized histopathologically by cellular and morphological changes that remain the single most important factor predicting risk for subsequent development of invasive neoplasia. Hence the aims of the present study were to determine the rate of malignant change of OED in a group of patients followed-up for a number of years, and hence determine factors likely to influence this malignant change, and to describe the clinical characteristics of patients who developed recurrence of OED and second dysplastic lesions. Materials and methods: This is hospital based cross-sectional study of all biopsy reports with histologically confirmed OED between 2012 and 2018 were retrospectivelly reviewed. Results: A total of 359 patients with histologically confirmed OED were reviewed, twenty (5.5%) of the 359 patients developed an invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral mucosa over a period of 2 to 274 months with mean transformation time of 3.3 years. Conclusion: The high risk of malignant transformation of OED seems to be related to patients older than 50 years when lesions were on the floor of mouth with severe dysplastic changes.