The aim of our study was to review current concepts in targeted therapies for benign tumors of the jaw. Benign odontogenic and maxillofacial bone tumors often require radical surgery, with consequent morbidity that impacts patients\' postsurgical quality of life. Currently, targeted therapies and novel nonsurgical therapeutics are being explored for management of non-resectable tumors, with the aim of avoiding surgery or minimizing surgical scope. However, data on clinical applications of targeted therapies for benign tumors of the jaw remain sparse. Therefore, a literature review was conducted, based on the PubMed database, which included in vivo human clinical studies describing clinical application of targeted therapy for benign tumor of the jaw. The review assessed the outcomes of BRAF and MEK inhibitors for treatment of ameloblastoma, RANKL monoclonal antibody for treatment of giant cell tumor, cherubism, aneurysmal bone cyst, and fibrous dysplasia, and tyrosine kinase inhibitor for treatment of odontogenic myxoma and cherubism. Targeted therapies decreased tumor size, slowed down tumor progression, and reduced bone pain. Surgery remains the gold standard, but targeted therapies are promising adjuvant or alternative treatment options for reducing tumor progression and morbidity of tumor surgery.

The natural history of malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) is still heavily debated. It\'s anonymous natural history is precisely denoted by its new adapted terminology \'undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS)\'. Thus to diagnose a lesion as UPS, it is vital to correlate its histopathological features along with its immunohistochemical (IHC) expressions to confirm the tumor cell lineage. MFH is extremely rare in mandible with the literature search in PubMed database revealing only 13 case reports of MFH involving the mandible. Among these, only 7 case reports provide IHC details of the case. Without IHC data it is not possible to determine the accuracy of the diagnosis in the remaining 6 cases. Here we report an additional 8th case of MFH involving the ramus and angle of the mandible. Histopathology revealed proliferating malignant spindle cells interspersed with histiocyte-like cells. The tumor cells were strongly positive for vimentin and CD68 and were negative for S-100, epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and cytokeratin (CK). The diagnosis was made by correlating the histopathological findings with the IHC profile. The report also provides the data (clinical, radiographic, histopathological, immunohistochemical features and treatment details) extracted from the 7 confirmed MFH case reports involving the mandible.

The aim of the present review was to systematically present the clinicopathological data of desmoplastic ameloblastoma (DA) from articles published in the literature. A comprehensive search of the databases (PubMed, Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Google Scholar) for published articles on DA was conducted. A total of 238 cases were identified and analyzed from 76 published papers. DA showed a slight male predilection (male: female=1.07:1) with a predominance in the fourth and fifth decades of life. Mandibular involvement (52.55%) was most commonly seen with a marked tendency for the anterior region (mandible: 40.9%, maxilla: 48.07%). The size of the lesion ranged from .5 cm to 20.4 cm, with the majority of cases measuring more than 3 cm in size (53.84%). Radiologically, most of the lesions presented mixed radiolucency and radiopacity (62%), and root resorption was observed in only seven cases. The majority of the lesions showed ill-defined margins upon radiographic examination (65.78%). Most of the cases were treated with resection (78.57%), and five of the 10 recurrent cases were treated by enucleation/curettage. DA is characterized by the unique presentation of clinicopathological parameters. It is not possible to comment on its aggressive/recurrent nature and best treatment modality due to inadequate follow-up data.