부산대학교 도서관

Objective: Oral leukoplakia has mixed and differing histopathological features, and it is thus difficult to reach an accurate histological diagnosis of oral leukoplakia based on a local biopsy alone. We recently demonstrated the significance of CD163+ macrophages in oral carcinogenesis. Herein we sought to determine whether CD163+ macrophages in biopsy specimens of oral leukoplakia help identify the overall histological nature of the lesion. Patients and Methods: Twenty‐six patients with tongue leukoplakia who underwent a histological examination by both a preoperative local biopsy and consecutive total excision were enrolled. We evaluated clinicopathological factors and the expression of CD163+ macrophages based on a retrospective comparison of the histological diagnostic concordance between the biopsies and excisions. Results: Seventeen patients (diagnostic‐agreement group) were diagnosed with squamous intraepithelial lesion based on both the biopsy and the excision. Nine patients (diagnostic‐discrepancy group) were diagnosed with invasive cancer by excision, although invasive cancer was not observed in their biopsy specimens. Compared to the diagnostic‐agreement group, the diagnostic‐discrepancy group had more tongue leukoplakia with non‐homogenous or high numbers of intraepithelial CD163+ macrophages. Conclusion: The evaluation of intraepithelial CD163+ macrophages in local biopsy specimens from tongue leukoplakia patients is a promising tool for cancer screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]