INTRODUCTION: Actinic cheilitis may undergo malignant transformation to squamous cell carcinoma. Furthermore, there is evidence that inflammatory components may be involved in this process, hence the importance of studies involving cellular atypia and chronic inflammation in this lesion. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the histological features of actinic cheilitis considering the degree of dysplasia, the intensity of inflammatory infiltrate and the possible correlation between the variables. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We selected 45 paraffin blocks of lesions with clinical and histopathological diagnosis of actinic cheilitis that enabled histopathological evaluation. The histopathological analysis was performed and the dysplasias and inflammatory infiltrates were classified into mild, moderate and severe. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, chi-square test and Analysis of variance (ANOVA), considering p < 0.05. RESULTS: 59.5% (27) of cases of actinic cheilitis showed some degree of dysplasia, from which 40% (18) presented mild dysplasia, 11.1% (5) moderate and 8.4% (4) severe. Squamous cell carcinoma occurred in 20% (9) of the specimens. All cases showed some degree of inflammation, from which 48.9% (22) showed mild inflammatory infiltrate, 20% (9) moderate and 31.1% (14) intense. There was a statistically significant association between the degree of dysplasia and the intensity of inflammatory infiltrate, namely ANOVA p = 0.000 and chi-square p = 0.004. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the occurrence of dysplasia and squamous cell carcinoma are common in actinic cheilitis and the inflammatory process was closely related to the progression of epithelial atypia.
Cheilitis; Inflammation; Oral cancer
