Correlative clinico-pathological evaluation of oral premalignancy.

In 1972, the World Health Organization's "Meeting of Investigators on the Histological Definitions in Precancerous Lesions" defined a precancerous lesion as a "morphologically altered tissue in which cancer is more likely to occur than in its apparently normal counter part" (Pindborg 1980). There are two generally accepted precancerous lesions in the oral cavity, leukoplakia and erythroplakia (Pindborg 1980). Leukoplakia is currently defined as "a white patch or plaque that cannot be characterized clinically or pathologically as any other disease" (WHO 1978). This definition has no histological connotation and is used in a strictly clinical sense (Pindborg 1980, Banoczy 1977). Erythroplakia is defined as a "bright red velvety plaque which cannot be characterized clinically or pathologically as being due to any other condition" (Pindborg 1980).