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The Early History of Odontogenic Ghost Cell Lesions: From Thoma to Gorlin

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Abstract

To reappraise the early history of odontogenic ghost cell lesions (OGCL), the extensive world literature published from 1838 to 1962 was reviewed. In light of the long history of OGCL, the term “calcifying epithelioma of Malherbe” first appeared in a 1931 French report, and the term “ghost cells” had its origin in two American seminal articles by Thoma and Goldman in 1946. Although Gorlin et al. coined the term “calcifying odontogenic cyst” (COC) in 1962, this type of cyst was initially reported three decades earlier by Rywkind in Russia, and almost concurrently by Blood good in the United States and Sato in Japan. In 1948, Willis provided the initial histological evidence of a peripheral COC in his British pathology textbook. Credit for the earliest clinical presentation of odontoma associated calcifying cystic odontogenic tumor belongs to the American radiology textbook by Thoma in 1917. A Scandinavian journal report published in 1953 by Husted and Pindborg was the first to address a dentinogenic ghost cell tumor, and its peripheral counterpart was originally reported in the Swiss literature 7 years later. The current concept of COC was undoubtedly established by Gorlin et al. but the history of OGCL really started with Thoma’s pioneering work about a century ago.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Diagnostic Pathology, Tsurumi University School of Dental Medicine, 2-1-3 Tsurumi, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, 230-8501, Japan

    Fumio Ide

  2. Division of Oral Pathology, Department of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Sciences, Meikai University School of Dentistry, Sakado, Japan

    Fumio Ide, Kentaro Kikuchi, Yuji Miyazaki & Kaoru Kusama

  3. Department of Pathology, Tsurumi University School of Dental Medicine, Yokohama, Japan

    Fumio Ide, Ichiro Saito & Takashi Muramatsu

  4. Department of Endodontics and Clinical Cariology, Tokyo Dental College, Tokyo, Japan

    Takashi Muramatsu

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  1. Fumio Ide
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  2. Kentaro Kikuchi
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  3. Yuji Miyazaki
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Ide, F., Kikuchi, K., Miyazaki, Y. et al. The Early History of Odontogenic Ghost Cell Lesions: From Thoma to Gorlin. Head and Neck Pathol 9, 74–78 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12105-014-0552-6

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