MALIGNANT TRANSFORMATION OF ORAL LICHEN PLANUS

Oralni lihen planus dugo je poznata kronična upalna bolest nepoznate etiologije. Iako je prema propisima Svjetske zdravstvene organizacije svrstana u prekancerozne lezije, postoje mnoge kontroverze o malignom potencijalu oralnog lihena planusa. U prikazu 9 pacijenata čiji su podaci prikupljeni na Zavodu za oralnu medicinu Stomatološkog fakulteta u Zagrebu, pokušalo se prikazati neke od tih kontroverzi i vidjeti koliko taj mali uzorak prati podatke ostalih istraživanja. Prikazani su i neki od mogućih mehanizama maligne transformacije, no za neke čvrste zaključke na tom području nedostaju podaci i potrebna su daljnja istraživanja. Iako u velikom broju slučajeva nije moguće točno utvrditi, već samo pretpostaviti da je planocelularni karcinom nastao na mjestima gdje su postojale lezije oralnog lihena, činjenica je da lihen postoji na okolnoj sluznici u mnogim slučajevima, a maligne lezije češće se pojavljuju u prisutnosti erozivnih i atrofičnih lezija.Oral lichen planus is chronic inflammatory disease, well-known for a long time, but its etiology still remains unknown. Although being listed as the preneoplastic lesion according to the World Health Organization, there are many ongoing debates about its malignant potential. In this case series report of nine patients we tried to present some of these controversies and see if this little sample of ours follows the statistics of the other researches. Some of the potential mechanisms of malignant transformation are also mentioned, but for making some strong conclusions there is still lack of data and furthermore researches are needed. In lot of cases it is hard to determine if the squamous cell carcinoma was developed in the previous lesions of oral lichen, but the fact is that lichen occurs in surrounding area and that the carcinoma is more likely to develop in erosive and atrophic forms