[Central carcinoma of the jaws. A radiography and pathological analysis of 36 cases]

Records of 36 cases of central carcinoma of the jaws were collected, including 25 cases of squamous cell carcinoma; 9 cases of salivary gland carcinoma; one case of undifferentiated carcinoma and one case of basal cell carcinoma. The correlation between roentgenographic appearance and the histopathologic types are: (1) most lesions of osteolytic destruction are primary intraosseous carcinoma of the jaws (14/16); (2) most lesions of multilocular destruction are salivary gland carcinoma (8/11); (3) most lesions of unilocular destruction are malignant change of odontogenic cysts (7/9). Among 25 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, 7 cases are malignant change of typical keratocyst; 3 cases are similar to dentigerous cysts; 7 cases though show diffuse osseous destruction, they partly have characters of keratocyst in light microscope. So, the authors suggest that perhaps more central carcinomas of the jaws are arising from odontogenic keratocysts.