Abstract
Benign osteoblastoma is a rarely seen tumor of the facial bones. The authors present a case of a 30-year-old man with a tumor of the mandibular body and ramus. The histopathological diagnosis was one of osteoblastoma. Postoperative recurrence with soft tissue infiltration suggested an osteosarcoma radiologically, but the histological examination again revealed the presence of an osteoblastoma. A second recurrence occured in the pharyngo-glossal region and this time the tumor was histologically diagnosed as an osteoblastoma, but with foci of well-differentiated osteosarcoma. The patient was given a course of radiotherapy, but clinical and radiological examination 8 months later revealed lung metastases and chemotherapy was started. Unfortunately, the patient died months later. While osteoblastomas are rare, and their sarcomatous change even rarer, our experience with this case lead us to suggest that a therapeutic preventative approach, involving both chemotherapy and total excision of the tumor, is the regime to adopt with osteoblastomas which involve soft tissues and have radiological features suggesting malignancy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Lucas DR, Unni KK, Mc Leod RA, O’Connor MI, Sim FH (1994) Osteoblastoma clinicopathologic study of 306 cases. Hum Pathol 25:117–134
Ueno H, Ariji E, Tanaka T, Kanada S, Mori S, Goto M et al (1994) Imaging features of maxillary osteoblastoma and its malignant transformation. Skeletal Radiol 23:509–512
Agrawala R, Graham RJ, Panella JS (1996) CT and MRI of aggressive osteoblastoma of thyroid cartilage. J Comput Assist Tomogr 20:116–118
Kunze E, Enderle A, Radig K, Schneider-Stock R (1996) Aggressive osteoblastoma with focal malignant transformation and development of pulmonary metastases: a case report with a review of literature. Gen Diagn Pathol 141:377–392
Figueiredo EG, Vellutini E, Velasco O, Siqueira M, Bougar P (1998) Giant osteoblastoma of temporal bone: case report. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 56:292–295
Cervoni L, Innocenzi G, Raguso M, Salvati M, Caruso R (1997) Osteoblastoma of the calvaria: report of two cases diagnosed with MRI and clinical review. Neurosurg Rev 20:51–54
Ohkawa M, Fujiwara N, Tanabe M, Takashima H, Satoh K, Mori Y et al (1997) Benign osteoblastoma of the temporal bone. Am J Neuroradiol 18:324–326
Velegrakis G, Prokopakis E, Papadakis C, Karampekios S, Koutsoubi K, Helidonis E (1997) Osteoblastoma of the nasal cavity arising from the perpendicular plate of the ethmoid bone. J Laryngol Otol 111:865–868
Snow RD, Christianson MD, Dowling EA, Brogdon BG (1994) Case report: left supraorbital osteoblastoma. Skeletal Radiol 23:656–659
Cerase A, Priolo F (1998) Skeletal benign bone-forming lesions. Eur J Radiol 27(Suppl 1):891–897
Mehdian H, Faraj AA, Weatherley C (1998) Painful scoliosis secondary to osteoblastoma of the vertebral body. Eur Spine J 7:246–248
Mori Y, Takayasu M, Saito K, Seki Y, Shibuya M, Yoshida J (1998) Benign osteoblastoma of the odontoid process of the axis: a case report. Surg Neurol 49:274–277
Weber C, Maas R (1996) Osteoblastoma simulating osteosarcoma of the petrous bone. Aktuelle Radiol 6:338–340
Figarella-Branger D, Perez-Castillo M, Garbe L (1991) Malignant transformation of an osteoblastoma of the skull, an exceptional occurrence: case report. J Neurosurg 75:138–142
Grace J, McCarthy S, Stankovic R, Marsden W (1993) Malignant transformation of osteoblastoma study using image analysis microdensitometry. J Clin Pathol 46:1024–1029
Ataoglu O, Oygur T, Yamalik K, Yucel E (1994) Recurrent osteoblastoma of the mandible: a case report. J Oral Maxillofac Surg 52:86–90
Berberoglu S, Oguz A, Aribal E, Ataoglu O (1997) Osteoblastoma response to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Med Pediatr Oncol 28:305–309
Schaser KI, Bail HJ, Haas NP, Melcher I (2002) Treatment concepts of benign bone tumors and tumor-like bone lesions. Chirurg 73:1181–1190
Bertoni F, Unni KK, Dahlin DC (1985) Osteosarcoma resembling osteoblastoma. Cancer 55:416–426
Cheung FM, Wu WC, Lam CK, Fu YK (1997) Diagnostic criteria for pseudomalignant osteoblastoma. Histopathology 31:196–200
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Woźniak, A.W., Nowaczyk, M.T., Osmola, K. et al. Malignant transformation of an osteoblastoma of the mandible: case report and review of the literature. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 267, 845–849 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-009-1172-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-009-1172-8