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

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the clinical behavior of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCA) arising in patients with pre-existing oral lichen planus (OLP). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: 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. RESULTS: 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). CONCLUSIONS: 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.