Oral cancer has a tendency to be detected at late stage which is detrimental to the patients because of its high mortality and morbidity rates. Early detection of oral cancer is therefore important to reduce the burden of this devastating disease. In this review article, the most common oral precancerous lesions are discussed and the importance of early diagnosis is emphasized. In addition, the most common non-invasive oral cancer devices that can aid the general practitioners in early diagnosis are also discussed.
Cell Transformation, Neoplastic ; classification ; Coloring Agents ; Early Detection of Cancer ; instrumentation ; methods ; Fluorescence ; Humans ; Leukoplakia, Oral ; diagnosis ; Luminescence ; Mouth Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Precancerous Conditions ; diagnosis

Optical spectroscopy devices are being developed and tested for the screening and diagnosis of oral precancer and cancer lesions. This study reports a device that uses white light for detection of suspicious lesions and green-amber light at 545 nm that detect tissue vascularity on patients with several suspicious oral lesions. The clinical grading of vascularity was compared to the histological grading of the biopsied lesions using specific biomarkers. Such a device, in the hands of dentists and other health professionals, could greatly increase the number of oral cancerous lesions detected in early phase. The purpose of this study is to correlate the clinical grading of tissue vascularity in several oral suspicious lesions using the Identafi(®) system with the histological grading of the biopsied lesions using specific vascular markers. Twenty-one patients with various oral lesions were enrolled in the study. The lesions were visualized using Identafi(®) device with white light illumination, followed by visualization of tissue autofluorescence and tissue reflectance. Tissue biopsied was obtained from the all lesions and both histopathological and immunohistochemical studies using a vascular endothelial biomarker (CD34) were performed on these tissue samples. The clinical vascular grading using the green-amber light at 545 nm and the expression pattern and intensity of staining for CD34 in the different biopsies varied depending on lesions, grading ranged from 1 to 3. The increase in vascularity was observed in abnormal tissues when compared to normal mucosa, but this increase was not limited to carcinoma only as hyperkeratosis and other oral diseases, such as lichen planus, also showed increase in vascularity. Optical spectroscopy is a promising technology for the detection of oral mucosal abnormalities; however, further investigations with a larger population group is required to evaluate the usefulness of these devices in differentiating benign lesions from potentially malignant lesions.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Antigens, CD34 ; analysis ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; analysis ; Biopsy ; methods ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; blood supply ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Erythroplasia ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Leukoplakia, Oral ; blood supply ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Lichen Planus, Oral ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mouth Neoplasms ; blood supply ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Neoplasm Grading ; Optical Imaging ; methods ; Pilot Projects ; Precancerous Conditions ; blood supply ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Spectrometry, Fluorescence ; methods ; Young Adult