Candida albicans (C.a.) and other Candida species are opportunistic commensals in the oral cavity of man detectable there in 30 to 50 ~ of adults usually without producing symptoms [6]. In many states of impaired local and/or general health, however, C.a. may assume a pathogenetic role giving rise to acute and chronic clinical manifestations such as thrush, atrophic glossitis, leukoplakic lesions, angular stomatitis, and others. In recent years, oral pathologists have focussed considerable interest on the possible role of chronic oral candidosis in the induction of oral (pre-)cancer [1,3,9,13,14], since C.a. and other yeast-like fungi have been shown histologically in dysplastic lesions or revealed from oral smears by cultivation [7]. The significance, however, of these findings remains uncertain the more as the interrelationship between oral candidosis, epithelial dysplasia, and risk of future malignancy is a complex of questions unsolved so far [8].
The present study was carried out in patients with oral leukoplakia. It was the aim to compare the occurrence rates of Candida infection with different nosological types of leukoplakia including early cancer in order to obtain more information about whether or not, and to what extent, oral candidosis is correlated with leukoplakic lesions of different prognostic significance. Details of the clinical, histological, and mycological results are published elsewhere [6].