Malignant potential of oral lichen planus an analysis of literature over the past 20 years

Aim: The study evaluates and compares the rate of malignant transformation in OLP and OLL and the relevance of initial diagnosis of dysplasia as reported in available literature, since 1995. Method: An electronic search of literature for retrospective and prospective studies of OLP was performed in the Pub Med MEDLINE database from 1995 to 2014. A total of 38 studies were included for the analysis. Extracted data was tabulated and analyzed. Results: A total of 16032 cases of OLP and 236 cases of OLL were reviewed from 38 articles. Of these, 243 cases of OLP and 7 cases of OLL had undergone malignant transformation. The range of malignant transformation rate from studies including OLP cases alone was 0-5.8% whereas, the range for OLL recorded was 0.65-3.2%. The average rate of malignant transformation computed from these studies was 1.25% with a mean follow-up of 1.2-19 years. Conclusion: The outcome of this study reinforces the need for a mandatory long term follow-up regimen for all cases of OLP and OLL