Oral neural tumors: Clinicopathologic analysis of 157 cases and review of the literature.

Background: Oral neural tumors (ONTs) are rare lesions and represent reactive or neoplastic proliferations of nerve sheath cells. The purpose of the present study is to report the clinical, demographic and histopathologic features of 157 ONTs diagnosed in a single Oral Pathology Department and review the pertinent literature.
Material and Methods: 157 cases of ONTs diagnosed during a 44-year period were retrospectively collected and the diagnosis was reconfirmed by studying representative haematoxylin and eosin stained tissue sections. The patients' gender and age, as well as the main clinical features of the lesions, were retrieved from the biopsy submission forms.
Results: The 157 ONTs represented approximately 0.4% of 35,590 biopsies accessioned during the study period. They affected 71 male and 86 female patients with a mean age of 38.4±18.8 years. They mainly appeared as asymptomatic nodules of normal or white colour on the tongue, lip mucosa and hard palate. The most common ONT was granular cell tumour (38.9%) followed by neurofibroma (19.7%), schwannoma (15.9%), traumatic neuroma (15.9%), palisaded encapsulated neuroma (8.3%) and nerve sheath myxoma (1.3%).
Conclusions: This study confirmed the rarity of ONTs. Their clinical characteristics mimic other oral lesions; thus, microscopic examination is the only mean to arrive at a definitive diagnosis. Key words: Oral neural tumors; oral neural neoplasms; neurofibroma; oral neurofibroma; schwannoma; oral schwannoma; neurilemmoma; oral neurilemmoma; granular cell tumor; oral granular cell tumor; traumatic neuroma; oral traumatic neuroma; palisaded encapsulated neuroma; oral palisaded encapsulated neuroma.
Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement:Author Tamiolakis Paris declares that he has no conflict of interest Author Chrysomali Evanthia declares that she has no conflict of interest Author Sklavounou – Andrikopoulou Alexandra declares that she has no conflict of interest Author Nikitakis Nikolaos G declares that he has no conflict of interest This study has been presented as a Poster Presentation in the 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Society for Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology (BSOMP) in Dublin, Ireland and has been awarded with “Specialist Registrar, Early Career Researcher & Postgraduate Student Clinical Prize”.
(Copyright: © 2019 Medicina Oral S.L.)