Clinicopathological profile of central giant cell granulomas: An institutional experience and study of immunohistochemistry expression of p63 in central giant cell granuloma

Background: The central giant cell granuloma(CGCG) of bone constitutes about 10% of benign jawbone lesions. It affects females more often than males, mandible than maxilla. Biological behavior of CGCG ranges from a slow growing asymptomatic swelling to an aggressive process. True giant cell tumor (GCT) should be distinguished from CGCG. The histological distinction between these lesions depends on quite subtle differences. Expression of p63 has been demonstrated in GCT of bone conversely, has not been detected in CGCG. Therefore this short study attempts to study the expression of p63 in CGCG in conjunction with clinicopathological profile of the cases reported in the institute.

Aims and objectives: To review all the cases of CGCGs of the jaws reported in the institute from 1998 to 2015 and study their clinicopathological profile.To study the immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of p63 in CGCG cases.

Methods and materials: The retrospective study reviewed records for clinically and histopathologically diagnosed cases of CGCG from the archives of department of Oral pathology. Data was recorded and analyzed. These cases were subjected for IHC analysis for expression of p63, also RANK, RANKL in selected cases to study the nature of giant cells.

Results and conclusion: This paper is an institutional experience of clinicopathological profile of diagnosed cases of CGCG. Clinicopathological findings were in concurrent with previous literature. Total number of cases was ten. Six occurred in females and four in males. Most of them occurred in the second decade, more commonly involving mandible. Three cases showed recurrence. Histologically most showed classical features. Expression of p63 showed negativity in all the cases in accordance with the previous studies. RANK and RANKL showed strong and diffuse immunoexpression in both mononuclear and giant cells. Thus study supports the finding that p63 expression can be used to differentiate between CGCG and GCT. However, more number of studies with larger sample size are required to confirm reliability of using p63 as a distinguishing marker between GCT and CGCG.