Serum lipid profi le in patients with oral cancer and oral precancerous conditions

The present study was undertaken to estimate and compare the levels of plasma total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and triglycerides in patients with oral precancerous lesions/conditions, oral cancer and normal subjects. The study comprised of 60 patients with oral precancerous lesions/ conditions, 60 patients with oral cancer and a control group of 60 healthy individuals. The diagnosis of oral precancerous lesions/conditions and oral cancer was confi rmed histopathologically. Under aseptic condition 5 ml venous blood of overnight fasting patient was withdrawn from each individual. Serum was separated by centrifugation and plasma levels of TC, LDL, HDL, VLDL and triglycerides were estimated. Descriptive statistical analysis has been carried out in the present study. Analysis of variance has been used to fi nd the signifi cance of study parameters between three or more groups of patients, Post-hoc test as Tukey has been used to fi nd the pair wise signifi cance. Signifi cance is assessed at 5% level of signifi cance. Statistically signifi cant decrease in levels of plasma TC, LDL, HDL, VLDL and triglycerides was observed in the precancerous and cancerous groups as compared to the control group. On comparison between precancerous and cancerous groups, signifi cant decrease was observed in cancerous group. The change in lipid levels may have an early diagnostic or prognostic role in the oral premalignant lesions/conditions and oral cancer. The presence of decreased plasma lipid profi le should increase the suspicion of these lesions to be investigated further.