Ameloblastoma: A Multicentric Study

Objectives: To supplement the current ameloblastoma database by reporting the clinic-pathologic features of ameloblastoma from Asia; Thailand, Vietnam and Korea and North America; Canada and The United States of America. Materials and methods: Biopsy records of the participating institutes were reviewed for lesions diagnosed as ameloblastoma during the year 1993-2009. Hematoxylin & eosin-stained glass slides were reviewed and re-classified according to the WHO Classification of Odontogenic Tumours in 2005. Clinical information as well as radiographic features was collected and analyzed. Results: The age of the patients in this study ranged from 4 to 107 years with the mean±SD = 38.27±17.78 years. Six hundred and sixty two patients (51.36%) were males, while 627 patients (48.64%) were females. Mandible outnumbered maxilla and other locations combined in all countries. Soft tissue lesions were encountered in only 4.27% of the cases. Radiographically, the number of multilocular radiolucency cases (43.40%) was comparable to that of the unilocular radiolucency ones (42.04%), while 46 cases (4.16%) demonstrated mixed radiolucent-radiopaque pattern. Follicular pattern was the most common histpathologic pattern (27.70%) followed by plexiform (21.10%) and unicystic pattern (20.71%), respectively. Conclusions: the clinico-pathologic parameters of ameloblastomas in the present study show some similarities with previous studies. However, minor differences still exist. The clinico-pathologic features of ameloblastomas in Asia differ from those of the ameloblastomas in North America with respect to age, gender and radiographic features. The differences may be partially accounted for by ethnic influences, accessibility to treatments, documentation, and the availability of data.