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Podoplanin could be a predictive biomarker of the risk of patients with oral leukoplakia to develop oral cancer. A systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES
To identify and analyze the existing literature on the utility of podoplanin to predict the risk of malignancy development (MD) in patients previously diagnosed with oral leukoplakia (OL).


METHODS
A systematic review and meta-analysis (SR-MA) was performed though a search strategy using several electronic databases and a combination of keywords related to podoplanin and MD of OL, until 15 May, 2022 (PROSPERO CRD42022329326). Evaluation of the risk of bias was performed using the Quality in Prognosis Studies Tool. The meta-analyses were estimated using fixed-effect models.


RESULTS
From 421 articles, 6 studies were finally included, that enrolled 546 patients with OL, of whom 125 presented with an oral cancer during follow-up (32 to 90 months). Some limitations regarding the risk of bias were identified mostly related to small sample sizes, short follow-up times, lack of information on covariables in the included studies and lack of accuracy (including sensitivity and specificity). Meta-analysis of 6 studies revealed a pooled hazard ratio (HR) of 3.72 (95%CI, 2.40-5.76; p<0.00001) for MD without statistical heterogeneity (I2 =0%, p=0.53).


CONCLUSION
The results of this SRMA support the role of podoplanin immunohistochemical expression as a potential predictive biomarker to assess the risk of malignancy development in oral leukoplakia.