A case of erythroplakia on the lateral side of the tongue

Though Erythroplakia is said to be one of the precancerous lesions with a high malignant transformation rate, very few reports have so far concerned this disease in Japan. We recently experienced a case of Erythroplakia occurring on the lateral side of the tongu of a 36-year-old female. The lesion was surgically resected with a favourable result as described in this article.Histopathologically, the isolated lesion consisted of laminated squamous propria and muscular tissue, the corneum of the epithelial tissue was fragible and the intercellular space markedly enlarged. Dysplasia was observed in the granular layer, spinal layer and basal layer, however, the basal layer was distinct with no evidence of cancer cell or infiltration. In the lamina propria, dilated capillary vessels and severe infiltration of small round cells mainly including plasma cells were found. The basal membrane was maintained normally and no lesion was noticed around the resected site. No recurrence tendency is now observed 3 years and 5 months after operation.