Citopath ology: an aid to prevent oral cancer in male patients

Abstract

This research is aimed to study the influence of smoking on oral mucosa in male patients above thirty years of age. It was done a qualitative citopathologic assessment (based upon Papanicolaou' s cellular malignancy criteria) and quantitative {cellular count of different degrees of maturation, exfoliated from oral mucosa). One-hundred patients were examined, being 50 of them smokers (at least ten years of habit) and 50 non-smokers, with ages ranging from 30 to 79 years, and clinically normal oral mucosa. Selected areas included lower lip red area, border of tongue and oral floor. All specimen were stained by modified Papanicolaou technique, and visualised under light, microscopy on 400x. It has not been observed malignant citological features on the anatomic regions studied. The number of inflammatory scrappings (Class II) was the speed of cell maturation or less adhesion on epithelial cells. The conclusion is that smoking alters the citopathologic pattern of studied anatomic areas, interfering in its cell maturation process. It can be inferred as an adaptation of oral epithelium to aggression carried out by physical and chemical agents in smoking, that can be perceived by citopathology, but still without clinical features.