Epidermal growth factor receptor expression in different subtypes of oral lichenoid disease.

Unlabelled: The oral lichenoid disease (OLD) includes different chronic inflammatory processes such as oral lichen planus (OLP) and oral lichenoid lesions (OLL), both entities with controversial diagnosis and malignant potential. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EFGR) is an important oral carcinogenesis biomarker and overexpressed in several oral potentially malignant disorders.

Objectives: To analyze the EGFR expression in the OLD to find differences between OLP and OLL, and to correlate it with the main clinical and pathological features.

Oral lichenoid disease as a premalignant condition: the controversies and the unknown.

We grouped as oral lichenoid disease (OLD) a series of chronic inflammatory processes with autoimmune base that affect the epithelium of the oral mucosa. This disease presents in 2% of the population with a marked predilection for the female gender, especially perimenopausal women. Clinically, it is characterized by the presence of lineal reticular papules and histologically by liquefaction degeneration of the basal layer of the epithelium associated with an inflammatory infiltrate with a "band-like" disposition on the lamina propria, composed primarily of T lymphocyte cells.