See my signature below: My husband's initial diagnosis of a leukoplakia (white patch) on his mobile tongue was moderate dysplasia. As Brian Hill told me when I first asked here about dysplasia seven years ago (boldface added by me):

[quote=Brian Hill on 5-9-06]
Dysplasia are those cells which are no longer normal, but they are not really malignant yet ... an in-between state, so to speak. Dysplasias also do not always go completely over to the dark side, but they are a step in that direction ... and having them removed or watched very regularly is prudent. Dysplastic leukoplakias can often return after surgical removal, many times done with a laser, sometimes via a blade excision. Keep an eye on things even after the removal from now until forever.[/quote]
Most dysplasias do NOT turn malignant; my husband was one of the unlucky ones. He was referred to a local ENT for an excisional biopsy of the whole area because the pathology report of the oral surgeon's biopsy of a tiny area raised some concerns even though no cancer cells were found.

By the time of the excisional biopsy (a month after the oral surgeon's biopsy), his leukoplakia had indeed become malignant -- but it was caught at the very earliest stage possible, it was removed with clear margins, and it required no further treatment. He is regularly checked by his dentist and has been referred a time or two to the oral surgeon; fortunately, those referrals didn't result in discovering anything serious (or even vaguely concerning). He also has gotten regular checks by a cancer specialist ENT at Johns Hopkins, whom he saw as soon as cancer was officially diagnosed and who was the one who said no further treatment was necessary.