Clinicopathological Study of the Resected Oral Leukoplakia Cases

: Oral leukoplakia is the most common premalignant or potentially malignant lesion in the oral mucosa. This retrospective study examined 67 lesions from 62 patients with clinical diagnoses of oral leukoplakia who underwent surgical excision in our department from 2015 to 2017. The patients comprised 22 men and 40 women. The most common location of the lesion was the lower gingiva, followed by the tongue, upper gingiva, buccal mucosa, palate, and lip. The most common clinical type was the white-spotted, followed by erythroleukoplakia, hillock, and verrucous types. Histopathologically, 16 lesions were oral intraepithelial neoplasia, whereas five were squamous cell carcinoma. The data identified several characteristics of oral leukoplakia that predict a high risk of malignant transformation and require aggressive surgical resection.