DEMOGRAPHIC AND CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF INCIPIENT ORAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA: A SOUTH-AMERICAN STUDY.

To describe demographic and clinicopathological aspects of a South-American cohort of incipient oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCi patients). A cross-sectional study was performed to assess patients from 6 South-American institutions. 107 patients within the histopathological spectrum of OSCCi (in situ and microinvasive) were included in this sample. Fifty-eight (54.2%) patients were men with a mean age of 60.69 years. Forty-nine (45.8%) and 39 (36.5%) patients had a history of tobacco and alcohol use, respectively. Clinically, most of the lesions were plaques (82.2%), ≥ 2 cm in extension (72%), affecting the lateral tongue (55.1%), and soft palate (12.1%) with a mixed (with and red) appearance. Eighty-two (76.7%) lesions were predominantly white and 25 (23.3%) were predominantly red. This is the largest cohort of OSCCi patients reported in the literature so far, which raises awareness of clinicians' inspection accuracy by demonstrating the most frequent clinical aspects of OSCCi, potentially contributing to oral cancer secondary prevention strategies. This study was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]