Ameloblastic carcinoma of the mandible with metastasis to the skull and lung: advanced imaging appearance including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography computed tomography

Abstract

Ameloblastic carcinoma is a very rare malignant odontogenic tumour with characteristic histopathological and clinical features, which requires aggressive surgical treatment and surveillance and, therefore, differs from ameloblastoma. Metastasis typically occurs in the lung. Only one patient with metastasis to the skull has previously been described and no prior case reports have presented MRI and positron emission tomography-CT (PET-CT) imaging findings. We describe a case of ameloblastic carcinoma with metastasis to the skull and lung with emphasis on imaging features including MRI and PET-CT.

Fine-needle aspiration biopsy of ameloblastic carcinoma of the mandible: a case report

“…In most cases one can observe a radiolucent intraosseous lesion (16), as in the case described here.…”

“…The term ameloblastic carcinoma was introduced by Shafer in 1983 (14) and is an extremely rare odontogenic tumor (15,16). The incidence of malignancy has been estimated in 1% of the cases.…”

“…The lung is the most common area of distant metastasis (16,17), but metastasis to the skull (16) and lymph nodes (21) have also been described. In the present case, the patient had not metastasis at the diagnosis.…”

Magnetic resonance imaging of a solid, multilobular ameloblastoma in the mandible of a pony

“…; Devenney‐Cakir et al . ). Additionally, CT imaging of ameloblastomas in camelids have previously been described (Step et al .…”

Oncology Virtual Issue Articles

“…Histopathology is useful to rule out other types of odontogenic tumours such as complex or compound odontomas, ameloblastic odontomas, ameloblastic carcinomas and ameloblastic fibromas. There is increasing literature in human medicine on the use of MRI and computed tomography (CT) to help differentiate odontogenic tumours from each other and from other differential diagnoses such as osteosarcomas, dentigerous cysts, keratocysts and aneurysmal bone cysts (Leckie et al 1993;Thompson et al 1996;Cihangiroglu et al 2002;Konouchi et al 2006;Devenney-Cakir et al 2010). Additionally, CT imaging of ameloblastomas in camelids have previously been described (Step et al 2003;Britt et al 2005) as well as CT and MRI images of an ameloblastoma in a dog (Kafka et al 2004).…”