Oral Mass Screening, Mainly on Cancer and Premalignancies

Abstract

This report presents the epidemiological status of oral mucosal abnomalities and precancerous lesions in a selected population of 6.085 Japanese people (1, 822 women and 4, 663 men, 32-78 years old) from August 1990 to Feburary 1993.
1. Out of 77 cases on which biopsy had been performed, one case (0.02 %) was found to have carcinoma in situ, 37 cases (0.61 %) with leukoplakia, seven (0.12 %) with lichen planus, and 32 cases with other diseases.
2. For the patients with leukoplakia, the screening findings were as follows:
1) The clinical classification of incidences consisted of the simple type (67.6 %), verrucous type (18.9 %), and the nodular type (13.5 %).
2) The most common site of leukoplakia was gingiva (62.2 %), followed by the cheek (21.6 %) and the tongue (13.5 %).
3) Histological findings show that epithelial dysplasia was found in 21 cases (56.7 %) and was graded as mild, moderate, or severe.
4) The number of smokers was 2, 223, and nonsmokers was 3, 862. In the case of leukoplakia, the total of 26 patients were smokers and the rest were nonsmokers. Smoking brings about a statistically significant increase in the incidence of leukoplakia (P <0.001)
5) The number of denture-using examineers was 1, 438, and that of nondenture-using examineers was 4, 647. As for patients with leukoplakia, the number of denture-using examineers was 14 and that of nondenture-using examineers was 24. The difference between groups was not statistically significant.