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Aim: Warthin's tumor (WT) is the second commonest parotid gland neoplasm after pleomorphic adenoma (PA). It mainly arises from the lower pole of the superficial parotid lobe (i.e., tail of gland), a site with the greatest distribution of intra-parotid lymph nodes, and its definitive etiopathogenesis is still unclear. The aim of this study was to support the strict topic and etiologic link hypothesised between this tumor and the intraparotid lymph nodes, as being massively present in the tail, by assessing the WT distribution within the parotid gland., Methods: Seventy-one WTs excised from 64 patients were compared retrospectively with 134 PAs from 133 patients, as controls. In all sample, staging of parotid gland tumors was defined by sonography and magnetic resonance imaging. Furthermore, tumor localization, size, bilaterality and multifocality were assessed according to radiological, intraoperative and histopathological findings., Results: WTs were mainly detected in the tail (73%), less in the superficial lobe (23%) and the deep one (4%). WT presented with bilateral and synchronous lesions in 10% of cases vs. 0.75% of controls., Conclusion: Since the tail has been well known to present the greatest distribution of intra-parotid lymph nodes, our clinical findings on WT parotid localization could suggest the possible origin of this tumor from epithelial salivary gland ductal inclusions, as being likely entrapped during embryogenesis within the intra-parotid lymph nodes, and could support the hypothesis of a heterotopy in the pathogenesis of WT. However, this suggestive hypothesis based only on clinical and "topographic" data should be confirmed by histopathological studies about the presence of the salivary ductal elements trapped within the intra-parotid lymph nodes.

Ulcers and/or erosions can be the final common manifestation, often clinically indistinguishable, of a wide and complex spectrum of conditions including traumatic lesions, infectious, vesiculo-bullous, neoplastic and gastrointestinal diseases. Their formation represents the final outcome of a complex and finely orchestrated phenomenon involving both epithelial lining and chorion. Reduction of blood flow, cytokine production, cell death, wound repair, all participate to the dynamic process which we define as ''ulcer''. However, little is known about the mechanisms which crucially contribute in determining the phenomenology of ulcer, and some questions still remain unsolved. This paper aims to explain the pathophysiology of oral ulcers attempting to answer three questions: the mechanism of ulcer development, the site of appearance, and the factors which determine the severity and healing time of ulcerative lesions.

Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are different therapeutical options for the management of the head and neck cancers. Their indication is strictly relate to some parameters (macro and microscopic characteristics of the tumor, the patient's general health and the remaining expectations of the life of the patients). Surgical treatment of the cancer, even if it represents the most radical approach and with the most therapeutical index, it always can't be practicable, since, often, it is associated to imposing aesthetical and functional alterations of the interested district. Chemotherapic agents are among the drugs with the lower therapeutical index, that are able to cause side effects, mainly due to the immunosuppression. About radiations, side effects could be indicates as immediates or acutes, and backward or chronic. Among the acute manifestations are enumerated: xerostomia, mucositis, bacterial infections, dysgeusia, dysphagia; among chronic forms: hyposalivation-xerostomia, caries, telangiectasis, infections, osteoradionecrosis, trismus, muscular fibrosis, necrosis of the soft tissues. Mucositis and xerostomia are the most common side effects, and they are a potential source of life-threatening infections. Few interventions are of proven efficacy to reducing severity and duration of mucositis, and there are no universally accepted treatment protocols, but research activity is increasing because of the upward recognition of the importance of mucositis, that need a complex and multidisciplinary clinical management.