Clinicopathologic aspects of oral leukoplakia in smokers and nonsmokers.

Objective: The present study assessed possible clinicopathologic differences between oral leukoplakia in current smokers and never-smokers.

Study Design: Retrospective study of 52 patients with oral leukoplakia. Clinical and pathologic data (age, sex, lesion size, lesion location, and presence/absence of dysplasia) were compared between 41 current-smoking patients and 11 never-smoking patients.

Results: The mean age of the smoking patients was 49 yrs, significantly lower than the never-smoking patients (59 yrs) (P < .05). The proportion of women was markedly and significantly higher in the never-smoker group than in the smoker group (82% vs. 22%). The odds ratio for lesions on the tongue (0.80, 95% CI 0.01-0.37) was statistically significant at the 5% level (i.e., 95% CI). Dysplastic lesions were observed most frequently in the never-smoking patients, and this difference was statistically significant (P = .026).

Conclusions: The results of the present study indicate that nonsmoking-related oral leukoplakia lesions are more frequent among women than among men, are more likely to be located on the tongue than smoking-related lesions, and show epithelial dysplasia more frequently than smoking-related lesions.