Case report of rapidly progressive proliferative verrucous leukoplakia and a proposal for aetiology in mainland China

Proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL) is a rare oral leukoplakia and has four features such as chronic proliferation, multiple occurrences, refractoriness to treatment and high rate of malignant transformation. As mentioned above, most PVL cases processed to malignancy over many years, sometimes 20 years. However, this report described a case of rapid progress, which had malignant transformation in a short period. Additionally, the aetiology of PVL was discussed and immunity was proposed as the possible cause.