Tumour that challenged diagnosis: mandibular myofibroma

Myofibroma is a rare, benign, nodular tumour of soft tissues, bones or internal organs. It was first described by Stout in 1954 as congenital generalised fibromatosis and it was renamed by Chung et al as ‘infantile myofibromatosis’ as the onset of the disease is at a young age.1 Later Smith et al introduced the term ‘myofibroma’ and suggested that these lesions may not be exclusively paediatric.2 Myofibroma represents the most common fibrous tumour of infancy, predominantly in the head and neck region. However, its involvement in jaws is rare. This disease presents as a locally invasive, hard painless mass unless it is secondarily infected. The lesion is considered to be completely benign but there is a potential for it, being confused with more aggressive spindle cell tumours.3 So it is very important to make an accurate diagnosis of such lesions, because of their …