DNA content status using brush biopsy with image cytometry correlated with staging of oral leukoplakia: A preliminary study

Summary Background Oral leukoplakia (OL) is the best-known potentially malignant disorder of oral cancer. The hypothesis was tested that DNA content abnormality may contribute to risk prediction of malignant potential of OL. Methods All OLs were staged according to a clinicopathologic classification and OL-staging system. DNA content status was investigated in a blinded prospective series of OL using brush biopsy with image cytometry, and examined the correlation of DNA content with the clinicopathologic features and OL-staging system in this preliminary study. Results Among 65 patients with OL, 27 (41.5%) was identified as DNA content abnormality. The frequency (77.8%) of DNA content abnormality in tongue was higher than that (22.2%) in other oral sites ( χ 2 test, P  = 0.038), and moderate or severe dysplasia had a higher frequency (63.0%) of DNA content abnormality than that (37.0%) of no or mild dysplasia ( χ 2 test, P  = 0.022). Moreover, the odds ratio of DNA content abnormality in high-risk patient group was 5.74-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.81–18.20; P  = 0.003) increase compared with low-risk patient group. Importantly, the positive correlation between OL-staging system and DNA content status was significant ( P  = 0.018, correlation coefficient = 0.292). Conclusion Our findings showed that DNA content status correlated with OL-staging system, suggesting that DNA content abnormality in OL as detected by image cytometry was an early event in oral carcinogenesis. The further large-scale prospective studies with clinical endpoints are warranted to validate the value of DNA image cytometry.