Is OLP potentially malignant? A clue from ZNF582 methylation

Abstract

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory disease with 1%-2% prevalence depending on the global region (Gonzalez-Moles et al., 2020). The OLP clinical diagnosis requires, firstly, the presence of bilateral more or less symmetrical white lesions affecting the buccal mucosa, and/or gingiva, and/or tongue, and/or lip; secondly, the presence with white papular lesions and lace-like network of slightly raised white lines (reticular, annular or linear pattern) with/ without erosions and ulcerations; thirdly, the occasional presence of desquamative gingivitis (Warnakulasuriya et al., 2021). Some lesions mimicking OLP but not fulfilling the aforementioned criteria should be regarded as oral lichenoid lesions (OLL) (Muller, 2011).OLP with several clinical presentation (reticular, erosive, atrophic, plaque, bullous and ulcerative) altogether has been classified as potentially malignant condition or oral potentially malignant disorder (OPMD) by the World Health Organization (WHO) (Cheng,

Is oral lichen planus potentially malignant: A reply to Yu‐Wei Chiu et al

“…We would therefore argue that Chiu et al (Chiu et al, 2021) conclusion that OLP is not potentially malignant should not be the basis for the management of patients diagnosed with OLP.…”

“…Latest publicly available meta-analysis estimated the risk of malignancy among OLP sufferers to be in the order of 1-2% (Ramos-García et al, 2021). The authors, Yu-Wei Chiu et al in a recently published article in Oral Diseases claim that OLP is unlikely to be potentially malignant based on their findings on a single biomarker that they examined in 43 clinically diagnosed patients (Chiu et al, 2021). Their main contention is that ZNF582 hypermethylation occurs in patients with oral epithelial dysplasia and OSCC but they did not find high levels methylation of ZNF582 in the OLP group who presented similar ZNF582 level to the normal control group and had a significantly lower level than that in the dysplasia and OSCC groups.…”

Oral Lichen Planus and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma share key oncogenic signatures

“…Studies on the potential for malignant transformation observed a transformation rate of 1.14% 5 . Different studies have searched for genetic markers or similarities in the expression profile of genes that participate in the malignant transformation of OLP into OSCC 6 – 9 . However, the potential for malignant transformation remains the subject of much analysis and remains unclear.…”

Improving the Diagnostic Performance by Adding Methylation Marker to Conventional Visual Examination in Identifying Oral Cancer

“…Among those hypermethylated genes, ZNF582 was studied rigorously and was selected for biomarker development based on promising findings. The correlation between ZNF582 methylation and oral cancer has been extensively studied in recent years [ 29 , 30 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. ZNF582 methylation demonstrated as an effective biomarker for the detection of oral dysplasia and oral cancer via collection of oral scrapings from normal oral mucosa subjects, oral potentially malignant patients, and OSCC patients.…”