Extensive carcinoma cuniculatum of the maxilla: A rare variant of oral carcinoma

ABSTRACT

Carcinoma cuniculatum (CC), is a rare well-differentiated, low-grade variant of squamous cell carcinoma. However, diagnosis of oral CC has remained very difficult, because many pathologists and clinicians remain un acquainted with oral CC, because there are very few reported cases of this disease in the oral cavity. To our knowledge, no more than 60 head and neck cases have been reported since Flieger and Owinski first described a case involving the mandible in 1977, because there are very few published cases of this disease in the oral cavity, the aim of this report is to provide a detailed clinical and histopathologic description of carcinoma cuniculatum of the maxila, provide a brief review of the literature, and highlight the difficulties in arriving at the correct diagnosis.