Oral Manifestation as the Main Sign of an Advanced Stage Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia.

Acute myeloid leukemia is an aggressive malignant neoplasm occurring mainly in elderly, with the median age of 65 years. Oral manifestations, mainly spontaneous bleeding, are a common finding in acute myelocytic leukemia and may represent the initial evidence of the disease. This report describes a case of a 47-year-old man with a one-month history of spontaneous oral bleeding. The patient had already been consulted by two professionals but he remained undiagnosed. The physical examination revealed paleness, fever, epistaxis and ecchymoses in the oral mucosa. The complete blood count revealed anemia, severe thrombocytopenia and leukocytosis with blasts predominance, reinforcing the diagnosis hypothesis of an acute leukemia. The patient was immediately referred to the Hospital and despite having received a quick intervention, he died 3 days after the admission due to diffuse pulmonary alveolar hemorrhage. According to the peripheral blood immunophenotyping the diagnosis of hypogranular variant of acute promyelocytic leukemia was established. The delay in the diagnosis may have influenced the unfavorable outcome. Early diagnosis and management are indispensable for survival of leukemia patients. In this way, dentists may be responsible for an early detection of oral manifestations of leukemia and for a fast referral to an adequate professional.

Clinicopathological and immunohistochemical analysis of twenty-five head and neck osteosarcomas.

The aim of this study was to analyze the clinicopathological features and immunohistochemical expression of p53, MDM2, CDK4, PCNA and Ki67 proteins in 25 head and neck osteosarcomas registered in a single institution. The mean age of the patients was 29 years and the most common site was the mandible (60%). The predominant histological type was the chondroblastic (72%) and 52% of the cases were classified as intermediate-grade of malignancy. The immunohistochemical analysis displayed positivity in 52% of the cases for p53, 24% for MDM2, 84% for CDK4, 92% for PCNA and 88% for Ki-67. The majority of cases were treated with surgery alone or associated with chemotherapy. Five patients developed local recurrences, four had distant metastasis and six had persistent disease after initial treatment. The overall 5-year and 10-year survival rates were 59% and 49%, respectively, and the most important prognostic factors were prior history of radiation exposure and osteoblastic histological type.