The Clinical Behavior and Recurrence Patterns of Oral Cavity Cancer in Oral Lichen Planus Patients

Objectives Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory disorder involving epithelia with squamous differentiation. Although described as a potential malignant precursor, the characteristics of malignancies arising among these patients are not widely described. Our goal was to describe the patterns of disease recurrence of patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) arising on the background of OLP. Methods A retrospective analysis of all surgically treated patients with OSCC at a university‐affiliated tertiary care center between 2000 and 2020. Results Two hundred seventy‐nine patients with OSCC treated surgically were included. Forty (14.3%) had OLP. The mean age of patients with OLP was 70.9 years compared with 64.3 years for non‐OLP patients (p = 0.03). OLP patients had a significantly higher rate of disease recurrence, persistence, or multiple primary disease (70% vs. 33.9%, p