Adenomatoid hyperplasia of the palate mimicking clinically as a salivary gland tumor.

This report describes an illustrative case of adenomatoid hyperplasia (AH) of the minor salivary glands on the palate of a 31-year-old man. The clinical features of the present lesion corresponded with those of pleomorphic adenoma, but histologically large lobules of normal-appearing mucous acini were found. The cell proliferative activity demonstrated in histological sections, by an immunohistochemical staining of proliferating cell nuclear antigen and Ki-67, showed no statistically significant differences among AH and a matched control group of normal palatal salivary glands. This case suggests that AH apparently exhibits an idiopathic, focal hypertrophic lesion of intraoral mucous glands with limited growth potential.