Synonyms
Erythroplasia
Definition
Erythroplakia is a fiery red patch on the oral mucosa that cannot be characterized clinically or pathologically as any other definable lesion. This is primarily a clinical diagnosis and, as such, is a diagnosis by exclusion of other defined lesions on a biopsy. A spectrum of histopathological changes has been associated with this diagnosis.
The etiology of this lesion is not well established, although it is assumed that smoking tobacco and alcohol intake are the main risk factors. Other factors suggested include chewing tobacco, low vegetable intake, and human papillomavirus (Hashibe et al. 2000; Reichart and Philipsen 2005).
Clinical Features
Incidence
Large incidence studies are rare in the literature. A small number of cross-sectional studies have demonstrated incidence varying from 0.02 % to 0.83 % (Reichart and Philipsen 2005). The studies which report such prevalence figures were mostly conducted in South or Southeast Asia.
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References and Further Reading
Hashibe, M., Mathew, B., Kuruvilla, B., et al. (2000). Chewing tobacco, alcohol, and the risk of erythroplakia. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 9, 639–645.
Partridge, M., Emilion, G., Pateromichelakis, S., A’Hern, R., Phillips, E., & Langdon, J. (1998). Allelic imbalance at chromosomal loci implicated in the pathogenesis of oral precancer, cumulative loss and its relationship with progression to cancer. Oral Oncology, 34, 77–83.
Qin, G. Z., Park, J. Y., Chen, S. Y., & Lazarus, P. (1999). A high prevalence of p53 mutations in pre-malignant oral erythroplakia. International Journal of Cancer, 80, 345–348.
Reichart, P. A., & Philipsen, H. P. (2005). Oral erythroplakia–A review. Oral Oncology, 41, 551–561.
van der Waal, I. (2009). Potentially malignant disorders of the oral and oropharyngeal mucosa; terminology, classification and present concepts of management. Oral Oncology, 45, 317–323.
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© 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Hunter, K.D., Speight, P.M. (2016). Erythroplakia. In: Slootweg, P.J. (eds) Dental and Oral Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28085-1_702
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28085-1_702
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