Oral granular cell tumors: an analysis of 10 new pediatric and adolescent cases and a review of the literature

Clinicopathologic studies on the granular cell tumor, a submucosal benign soft-tissue neoplasm, have not addressed the pediatric and adolescent population. This study of patients from birth to 19 years of age describes clinically and microscopically 10 new cases and combines them with 24 well-documented pediatric cases previously published in the English-language literature. Of the 34, patient ages ranged from 3 to 19 years (mean age 14.5 years) with a female-to-male ratio of 3.3 to 1. The most common location was the tongue (50%) and lips (25%). In neoplasms whose epithelial findings were documented microscopically, a reactive pseudoepitheliomatous (pseudocarcinomatous) hyperplasia of the overlying epithelium occurred in 29%. The recurrence rate was less than 10% following conservative surgical excision. This study reveals that an oral granular cell tumor in the first decade of life is an uncommon event and discusses the importance of differentiating between squamous cell carcinoma and granular cell tumor.