Candida Albicans detection in pre-malignant and malignant lesions of the oral cavity

Introduction: Nowadays, there is a remarkably increase of the interest of Candida Albicans studies mainly because of its relation with potentially malignant and malignant lesions of the oral cavity. In the present study we aim to reveal if there are any differences between these lesions or not. Materials and methods: Totally 72 patient consist of 23 leukoplakia, 18 oral lichen planus, 13 well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (WSCC), 13 moderate squamous cell carcinoma (MSCC) and 5 undifferentiated squamous cell carcinoma were included in this cross-sectional analytical study. These samples were then gone under PAS staining and statistically analyze with Mann Whitney, Chi-square (p˂0.05). Results: The results showed significantly differences between dysplastic and non-dysplastic epithelium (P=0.008), but there are no statistically significant differences between various degrees of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) (P=0.26), even though there were differences. Conclusion: The present results confirms the previous studies on the correlation between malignant lesions and the presence of fungi hyphae, but further studies are needed.