Prevalence of diabetes mellitus among patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma and oral potentially malignant disorders - A retrospective study

Abstract

Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) is the 12th most common cancer in the world. 90-95% of oral cancer is OSCC and it can be preceded by oral potentially malignant disorder (OPMD). Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major global health issue and various epidemiological studies have implicated diabetes mellitus as a risk factor for the development of oral squamous cell carcinoma and other oral potentially malignant disorders. The study aimed to evaluate the correlation of diabetes mellitus in OSCC, leukoplakia and oral lichen planus patients and also evaluate age and gender predilection in OSCC and OPMD cases with diabetes mellitus. This retrospective study included a sample size of n=226 [156-OPMD, 70-OSCC]. Data regarding the sample cases were selected after the review and analysis of records of about 86000 patients who visited our institution between June 2019 and March 2020. From n=226, 30% of OSCC cases showed the positive diabetic history and 15% of OLP and 8.3% of leukoplakia were associated with DM. A statistically significant association found between diabetes in OSCC, Leukoplakia, OLP cases with p-value (0.001). 90.48% of OSCC and 75% of leukoplakia cases with a positive diabetic history were males. Among OLP, 77.8% of cases with diabetes mellitus were females. The association of prevalence of diabetes mellitus with gender in Oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC), Leukoplakia and Oral lichen planus(OLP) was found to be statistically significant (p=0.001). The most prevalent age range for both OSCC and OPMD patients with a history of diabetes mellitus was found to be 50-60 years, followed by above 60 years. In conclusion, there found to be a significant prevalence of DM in OSCC and OPMD cases. The DM status of oral cancer and OPMD patients may have a significant impact on their disease progression and treatment. DM could be considered as a prognostic factor for OSCC and OPMD.