Abstract
There are some reports that hepatitis C virus （HCV） infection is involved in the development of oral lichen planus （OLP）. In the present study, we performed a clinical investigation on OLP patients with HCV infection. The subjects were 24 HCV-infected patients （HCV group） who were clinically and histopathologically diagnosed as OLP in our department, and 130 patients without HCV infection （control group）. We compared age, gender, number and site of lesions, clinical types, therapeutic effects, and malignant transformation rate. There were no significant differences in gender, age, number and site of lesions between the two groups, but there were significantly more erosive and ulcer types in the HCV group than in the control group. The HCV group had a better therapeutic effect, but there were significantly more relapse cases than in the control group. The malignant transformation rate in the HCV group was 8.3％, which was higher than that in the control group （3.8％）. These results suggest that long-term follow-up is necessary because the HCV group is more likely to relapse and has a higher malignant transformation rate.
