Central granular cell odontogenic tumor: the first reported case in Oriental people and literature review

The central granular cell odontogenic tumor (CGCOT) is a rare odontogenic neoplasm, usually occurring in the mandible of middle-aged women. Previous studies have reported only 34 cases, all of whom were white or black individuals. The present study reports an additional case of CGCOT, occurring in the posterior mandible of a 69-year-old Taiwanese man. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case in Oriental people. The odontogenic epithelium exhibited strong positive immunoreactivity for pan-cytokeratin, and focal weak staining for bcl-2. The granular cells showed strong positivity for vimentin and α1-antichymotrypsin, and focal weak staining for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and CD68. These features indicated a mesenchymal origin and possible histiocytic lineage for the granular cells. This study also presents a literature review and describes immunohistochemical features of the tumor.