Ameloblastic Fibrosarcoma - A Review of the Literature

The first description of the rare odontogenic tumor, ameloblastic fibrosarcoma (AFS), was in 1887 [1]. Various terminologies like ameloblastic dentinosarcoma and ameloblastic odontosarcoma were employed in the past to denote these types of lesions, which depended upon the presence of enamel or dentin. In the recent past, multiple authors considered these lesions to be the histological variants of the same lesion and were thought to be for a long time. Recently, the World Health Organization classification of the odontogenic tumors, ameloblastic odontosarcoma, and dentinosarcoma are again separately listed. Reported cases of AFS had ages ranging from 3 to 89 years, [2] with a mean age of all the reported cases summing upto 27.3 years [3], which shows that it has a major tendency towards the younger population. The usual clinical presentation is painful, but occasionally painless facial mass. Paresthesia and dysesthesia are the next progressive symptoms. Continuance of the symptomatic episodes is also gradual and has a varied range, from a few days to two years. When analyzing various published articles reporting cases of AFS and literature reviews, it can be seen that more than 32% of the reported cases of AFS were recurrences and this points towards a slightly increased rate of recurrence which further necessitates meticulous removal of the lesion [4].