Oral potentially malignant disorders: A clinician’s perspective

Abstract

The ability to predict which oral potentially malignant disorder will progress to squamous cell carcinoma remains the ultimate challenge facing clinicians managing patients with oral diseases. Currently oral epithelial dysplasia graded by pathologists holds a strong bearing on the risk of malignant transformation of a lesion; with high-grade lesions indicative of higher risk of malignant transformation, while low-grade lesions very rarely transforming to malignancy. However, repeated studies and real-world cases have shown that oral squamous cell carcinoma can occur in lesions with no epithelial dysplasia. There still remains an unmet need among clinicians managing patients with oral diseases for effective tools to predict risk of malignant progression. This presentation will aim to explore the real-world dilemmas faced in clinical diagnosis and management of patients with oral potentially malignant disorders and discuss developments in technology including diagnostic adjuncts and artificial intelligence that may assist in resolving this clinical dilemma.