Takeda Daisuke, Shigeoka Manabu, Sugano Tenyu, Yatagai Nanae, Hasegawa Takumi, Akashi Masaya
Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Department of Surgery Related, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-2 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0017, Japan.
Division of Pathology, Department of Pathology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-1 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0017, Japan.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2021 Jun 4;11(6):1039. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11061039.
Most head and neck lymphoepithelial carcinomas (LECs) arise in the nasopharynx and harbor Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). LEC is also a rare subtype of the oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Morphologically, LEC is defined as resembling non-keratinizing nasopharyngeal carcinoma, undifferentiated subtype. The histological features and pathogenesis of oral LEC are not established. We describe a case of tongue LEC with histopathological diagnostic difficulties. A 72-year-old Japanese female presented with a whitish change on her left-side tongue. The diagnosis was atypical epithelium; neoplastic change could not be ruled out by a biopsy. Although the lesion was monitored at our hospital per her request, invasive carcinoma was detected 11 months later. Microscopically, conventional SCC was observed with the characteristic features as LEC confined to the deep part of the lesion. We briefly discuss this unusual histological finding and make a novel proposal for distinguishing oral LEC from LECs in other regions based on these histological findings.
大多数头颈部淋巴上皮癌（LEC）起源于鼻咽部且携带EB病毒（EBV）。LEC也是口腔鳞状细胞癌（SCC）的一种罕见亚型。形态学上，LEC被定义为类似于未分化型非角化鼻咽癌。口腔LEC的组织学特征和发病机制尚未明确。我们描述了一例具有组织病理学诊断困难的舌部LEC病例。一名72岁的日本女性左侧舌部出现发白改变。诊断为非典型上皮；活检不能排除肿瘤性改变。尽管应她的要求在我院对病变进行了监测，但11个月后检测到浸润性癌。显微镜下，观察到传统的SCC，其具有LEC的特征性表现，局限于病变深部。我们简要讨论了这一不寻常的组织学发现，并基于这些组织学发现对区分口腔LEC与其他部位的LEC提出了新的建议。
