González-Moles, Miguel ÁngelRamos-García, PabloWarnakulasuriya, Saman2025-01-072025-01-072021-07-212072-6694https://hdl.handle.net/10668/28084Proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL) is considered as an oral potentially malignant disorder (OPMD) that presents with a high tendency to recurrence after treatment and has the highest malignant transformation ratio among all OPMD (50%). Evidence-based publications have indicated that the malignant evolution reported is significantly related to the inconsistent diagnostic criteria used in primary-level studies; so, it has been hypothesized that the risk of oral cancer for this disease could even be underestimated. This is important because PVL requires specific management protocols, evidence-based, aimed at the early diagnosis of cancer developing in these lesions. We present a scoping review-a novel approach to mapping the available literature on a given topic to provide an overview of the available research evidence and to highlight possible gaps in the evidence-especially related in our study to the diagnostic aspects of PVL, and to issue a conceptual proposal and diagnostic criteria for PVL. We conclude that PVL is a white, multifocal and progressive lesion with a high malignant transformation rate which is diagnosed mainly around the age of 60 years without any specific histological characterization. We also advise a personal reflection on the level of certainty with which the clinician makes the diagnosis of a particular case of PVL.enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/diagnostic criteriaearly diagnosisoral cancerproliferative verrucous leukoplakiascoping reviewresearch article34359571open access10.3390/cancers13153669PMC8345058https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/13/15/3669/pdf?version=1627007460https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8345058/pdf