What Do Molecular Advances of Odontogenic and Salivary-Type Neoplasms Infer on Their Histogenesis?

Dear Colleagues,

Gone are the days when diagnosis was based on examining H&E slides because molecular findings have re-classified the subvariants of conventional diseases as a new entity that should follow a differing therapeutic intervention. However, the rate of change in oral pathology is not as swift as in breast pathology and sister domains. The number of indexed molecular studies published in 2021 investigating molecular details in breast cancer and prostate cancer was 33,301 articles many of which investigated the possibility of using ferroptosis in treating cancers. Only around one tenth of this number was published to investigate molecular findings in oral pathology over the past two decades. 

Perhaps gradually inclined to expand the central focus of their research, oral pathologists published recent studies that drifted from the mainstream of investigating ameloblastoma and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSSC), analyzing the molecular-based distinction between fibro-osseous lesions (e.g., cemento-osseous dysplasia, cemento-ossifying fibroma and juvenile ossifying fibroma) and giant cell tumor-like and neoplastic lesions (central giant cell granuloma, peripheral giant cell granuloma, and giant cell tumor). Even with the study of conventional OSCC, recent studies are concerned with characterizing the clinico-pathologic findings that may distinguish keratinizing from non-keratinizing OSCC at the molecular level. Moreover, the morphology of some maxillofacial tumors (e.g., adenoid cystic carcinoma) is different from many sinonasal and craniofacial mimickers (e.g., HPV-Related Multiphenotypic Sinonasal carcinoma) as well as other tumors outside the head and neck.

Therefore, we confine the scope of this Special Issue to explore the molecular advances in understanding odontogenic and salivary-type neoplasms that could have direct implications on changing the current view on their histogenesis. The topics of this Special Issue include, but not limited to, the following: 

• Updated view on the histogenesis of odontogenic tumors
• Molecular profiling of ameloblastoma versus non-odontogenic ameloblastomous lesions
• Molecular analysis of odontogenic neoplasms with glandular differentiation
• Distinguishing tumor bony lesions (odontogenic fibroma) from tumor-like bony lesions (Gnathodiaphyseal dysplasia, Nora’s leasion, cemento-osseous dysplasia).
• SWI/SNF-deficient carcinomas
• Origin and diagnosis of clear cell odontogenic carcinoma and its mimickers
• Molecular profiling of odontogenic myxoma
• Molecular profile of adenomatoid odontogenic tumor.
• Deep-learning and machine-learning perspectives that propose new taxonomies. 

We encourage all authors to place their relevant research articles in this forthcoming issue.

Dr. Bacem Khalele
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Molecular Pathology is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.