Neurofibroma of Lip: Report of a Rare Case

Abstract

Neurofibroma is a benign tumor of neural tissue origin. It most frequently involves the skin and rarely the oral mucosa. The nature of the disease has been recognized as hereditary with an autosomal dominant trait with variable penetrance. It has been reported to occur 1 in every 3000 births. The oral lesions occur as discrete, nonulcerated nodules, which tend to be of the same color as the normal mucosa- Usually occurs on the buccal mucosa, palate, alveolar mucosa, vestibule and the tongue. An interesting case of asymptomatic swelling of the lower lip since 20 years is presented. The swelling was gradual in onset and slowly increased in size in the first year of its appearance, there after there was no increase in size of the swelling and it remained stable until the patient reported at our clinic. It was a solitary diffuse, lobulated swelling of lower lip extending distally from left commissure, menially crossing the midline, anteriorly from vermillion border of lower lip, posteriorly extending into labial vestibule. Excisional biopsy was performed and histological examination revealed interlacing fascicles of elongated cells with very dark staining nuclei and focal areas resembling Antoni A pattern, which confirmed the lesion to be neurofibroma of lip.

Keywords

• Solitary labial neurofibroma
• nonmyelinating Schwann cells
• NF1genes
• perineural cells
• mast cells
• endothelial cells
• mitogens
• neurofibromin