RETRACTED: Straticyte demonstrates prognostic value over oral epithelial dysplasia grade for oral potentially malignant lesion assessment

Abstract

Straticyte™ was previously shown to be a more effective prognostic assessment than the current standard of care, histopathological dysplasia grading, to assess progression risk of oral epithelial dysplasia to invasive cancer [Hwang JT, Gu YR, Shen M, Ralhan R, Walfish PG, Pritzker KP, et al. Individualized five-year risk assessment for oral premalignant lesion progression to cancer. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. 2017;123:374-81]. In this follow-up study, our aim is to confirm the prognostic value of Straticyte using an independent cohort of oral biopsy cases previously assessed as epithelial dysplasia of various grades. Using Visiopharm image analysis system, we analyzed an independent retrospective cohort of 51 oral biopsy samples with known outcomes and a follow-up history of up to 12years, to verify Straticyte, an individualized 5-year risk assessment for progression of oral potentially malignant lesions to invasive squamous cell carcinoma. Straticyte classified the lesions more accurately than histopathological oral epithelial dysplasia grading for risk for progression to cancer over five years. The sensitivity of low-risk vs. non-low-risk Straticyte groups was 100% compared to 68% for mild vs. non-mild dysplasia. The sensitivity of high-risk vs. non-high-risk Straticyte was 71% compared to 3% for severe vs. non-severe dysplasia. Furthermore, the Negative Predictive Value (NPV) for Straticyte was 100% for low-risk vs. non-low-risk, whereas the NPV for mild vs. non-mild dysplasia was 38%. In this cohort, Straticyte ascertains as a more useful assessment for risk of cancer progression in oral potentially malignant lesions than oral epithelial dysplasia grade.