Can immunohistochemical biomarkers distinguish epithelial dysplasia degrees in actinic cheilitis? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Actinic cheilitis (AC) is a poten-tially malignant disorder of the lip, characterized by epithelial and connective tissue alterations caused by chronic exposure to ultraviolet radiation. In the past decades, diverse studies have been conducted in lip carcinogenesis and many biomarkers have been identified in lip lesions, yet there is no scientific evidence that determines its usefulness in the clinical setting or in histopatho-logical routine. Therefore, we conducted the first systematic review in this field to summarize the results of published studies on immunohistochemical bi-omarkers in lip carcinogenesis, to evaluate if there is a marker than can distin-guish the different h…