Chondrolipoma of the posterior tongue

Chondrolipomas are rare benign mesenchymal tumors characterized by the proliferation of mature adipocytes associated with variable amounts of mature cartilaginous tissue. To our knowledge, only 11 cases of chondrolipoma affecting the oral cavity have been published in the English-language literature (PubMed database), and no cases of this condition up to 20 years of complaint duration have been reported. Thus, this article describes an interesting and atypical case of a 68-year-old woman who presented an asymptomatic slow-growing swelling on the posterior dorsal surface of the tongue. In addition, we reviewed the international literature from 1976 to 2009.