Behavior of oral squamous cell carcinoma in subjects with prior lichen planus.

Abstract

To characterize the clinical behavior of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCA) arising in patients with pre-existing oral lichen planus (OLP). Retrospective case-control study. Disease-free interval, time to first recurrence, subsequent therapy, and overall survival were calculated and compared between cases and controls matched for age, gender, primary site, and tumor stage. In 10 identified subjects with OLP/OSCCA, mean time from OLP diagnosis to OSCCA was 5.5 years. Three subjects suffered a local recurrence and two developed a second primary OSCCA. Mean actuarial survival for OLP patients was 119 months vs 42 months for the control patients, though this difference was not significant (P = 0.201, log-rank). OLP/SCCA subjects may exhibit better actuarial survival than SCCA patients despite a somewhat higher rate of local recurrence and second primary SCCA. Further study is required to characterize the behavior of OSCCA arising in pre-existing OLP.