Periodontal status and patient characteristics in oral mucosal malignant and benign lesions: A preliminary study

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Head and neck cancers are the sixth most common type of cancers in the world and it has been emphasized that chronic inflammation may be associated with carcinogenesis in recent years. In the present study, the purpose is to investigate the patient characteristics and the periodontal health status of patients with malignant and benign oral mucosal lesions.METHODS: ۳۴ patients with suspicious mucosal lesions were registered. The patients’ demographic variables, tobacco use, and clinical periodontal measurements such as probing pocket depth (PD), plaque index (PI), and bleeding on probing (BOP) were established for statistical analysis. All lesions were stained using Toluidine blue solution in order to determine the biopsy site and punch biopsy was performed prior to the histological examination. The patients’ test parameters including demographic variables, tobacco use, and clinical periodontal measurements were statistically analyzed for benign and malignant groups. T-test, chi square, and Fisher’s exact tests and logistic regression test were utilized for data analyses using SPSS program. The level of significance was set at P = ۰.۰۵۰.RESULTS: ۳۴ patients [۱۵ (۴۴.۰%) females and ۱۹ (۵۶.۰%) males] with suspicious oral mucosal lesions were enrolled into the study. Of the ۳۴ lesions, ۸ (۲۳.۵%) were histologically diagnosed as malignant whereas ۲۶ (۷۶.۵%) were benign. Although periodontal parameters and tobacco use were clearly granted higher scores in the malignant group, the logistic regression analysis revealed that none of the variables were influential on the diagnosis of the lesions [gender (P = ۰.۴۸۷), age (P = ۰.۸۹۱), duration of the lesion (P = ۰.۵۲۶), lesion localization (P = ۰.۳۵۶), tobacco use (P = ۰.۸۷۳), pocket depth (P = ۰.۷۴۱), plaque index (P = ۰.۶۷۲), bleeding index (P = ۰.۷۰۷)].CONCLUSION: Despite the fact that the present study did not report statistically significant results, meaningful values related to tobacco use and periodontal measurements were observed in the patients with malignant mucosal lesions when compared to those with benign mucosal lesions.

Keywords:

Carcinogenesis , Head and Neck , Neoplasms , Inflammation , oral cancer , Periodontal Diseases