The most important diseases or complications that may be contributed to by leukoplakia of the oral mucosa are:
Infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-B99).
- Oral candidiasis [Candida-infected leukoplakia]
Mouth, esophagus (food pipe), stomach and intestines (K00-K67; K90-K93).
- Erythroleukoplakia
Neoplasms – tumor diseases (C00-D48)
- Carcinoma in situ within leukoplakia → transition to invasive squamous cell carcinoma.
Injury, poisoning, and other sequelae of external causes (S00-T98).
- Peri-/postoperative infection
- Peri-/postoperative bleeding
- Damage to adjacent structures due to surgical removal of leukoplakia.
- Postoperative unfavorable scarring
Prognostic factors
An increased risk of transformation applies to the following factors:
- Illness of women
- Existing for a long time
- Occurrence in non-smokers
- Localization floor of the mouth or tongue
- Occurrence in patients with previous disease of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck region.
- Inhomogeneous leukoplakia
- Candida-infected leukoplakia
- Epithelial dysplasia (deviation of tissue structure from the normal picture).
- DNA aneuploidy
Genetic aspects:
- DNA ploidy:
- Aneuploidy with a high transformation rate.
- Tetraploidy 60% transformation
- Diploidy 3% transformation
- Loss of heterozygosity: two chromosome arms (3P and 9P) seem to be significant for possible progression.
