Mustafa Ali

Oral leukoplakia, also known as ‘smoker's keratosis’ often leads to an individual developing an invasive, oral squamous cell carcinoma. Oral leukoplakia is characterized as an opaque, concentrated, white/gray-appearing patch; located on either the buccal mucosa and/or the dorsal and side regions of the tongue.1 As of today, there are few treatment options, mainly limited to surgical removal or a cryoprobe which freezes and disrupts the cancerous cells.2, 3 However, either method is equally invasive, inefficient, or at a premium cost and none has shown to be effective. As studies have shown that subjects who undergo such treatment often have recurring lesions during their lifespan.3 Therefore, this study is exploring the individual effects of pioglitazone and metformin treatments on cells derived from leukoplakia; at different concentrations. Our data shows the proliferation of leukoplakia cells significantly decreased when exposed to 40µM concentration of pioglitazone and 10 mM concentration of metformin treatments. From our studies, as the exposure time and the concentration of either pioglitazone and metformin increased, we observed a decrease in proliferation of leukoplakia cells. This research indicates significant evidence for the unique advantages of such proposed treatment. Additionally, a clinical trial has been established to provide explicit evidence. However, we have not yet completed laboratory studies to elucidate any synergistic effects of both drugs on leukoplakia cells. Nonetheless, further research is of utmost importance in order to elucidate the long-term effects of such proposed treatment. All in all, our data indicates a statistically significant difference between high concentrations of pioglitazone and metformin treatments and controls in leukoplakia cell proliferation (MSK-Leuk 1) (p<0.0001).