The molecular pathology of bony lesions of the jaws

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  A clinicopathological, immunhistochemical and molecular study of fibro-osseous lesions of the jaws, including fibrous dysplasia, ossifying fibroma and osteosarcoma.

• IRAS ID

  209746

• Contact name

  Lisette H C Martin

• Contact email

  L.Martin@sheffield.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

• Duration of Study in the UK

  5 years, 0 months, 0 days

• Research summary

  Fibro-osseous lesions (FOLs) are a group of benign (not cancerous) lesions that mainly affect the bones of the face in which normal bone is replaced by fibrous tissue containing abnormal bone.

  Fibrous dysplasia (FD) and ossifying fibroma (OF) are two kinds of FOL.
  Fibrous dysplasia (FD) is a developmental condition of unknown cause. FD mainly affects children and young adults, where it affects the jaws and bone of the skull. It can cause severe facial deformity. Most cases of FD seem to stabilise as the patient enters adulthood but surgery may be necessary for functional reasons or to correct severe disfigurement.
  Ossifying fibroma (OF) is a benign (non-cancerous) lesion which usually presents as a bone swelling in 30-40 year old women. It often affects the lower jaw, particularly the bone surrounding teeth. Two special kinds of OF affect children and young adults (Juvenile trabecular ossifying fibroma and juvenile psamommatoid ossifying fibroma). These forms of OF are more aggressive and enlarge quickly and need to be completely removed by surgery.

  It can be very difficult to distinguish between FOLs due to their similar clinical, xray and microscopic features. In some cases, it may be difficult diagnose then from osteosarcomas of the jaw.
  Osteosarcomas are bone cancers. Although rare in the head and neck region, it needs to be removed by surgery and unfortunately often recurs.
  Making the diagnosis between different FOLs and osteosarcoma is an important distinction to make given profound differences in treatment of the patient.

  The aims of this project are to look at the clinical, xray, microscopic features of FD and OF, as well as looking for any abnormal DNA changes in these lesions, and to compare these results to those of osteosarcomas.

• REC name

  East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  16/EM/0373

• Date of REC Opinion

  23 Aug 2016

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion