Rhabdomyoma of the tongue

Abstract

A new rhabdomyoma of the tongue has been reported which is made up of the granular type of cells which some investigators have believed to be degenerated muscle fibers, but which Diss identified as atypical myoblasts. As in Diss's case, the tumor cells have developed in the subepithelial corium whence they extended from the superficial muscle layer of the tongue. The presence of these cells in a part not ordinarily containing muscle tissue is against the theory of degeneration and in favor of the opinion that they are neoplastic formations. When they occur as congenital tumors, they are sometimes looked at as tissue malformations, and when they occur in later life, they may perhaps be an outgrowth of the process of repair following an injury. The regenerative process through elimination of the growth restraint may lose its main object, restoring the injured part to its normal state, and produce immature cells that are only incompletely transformed into adult striated muscle fibers, such as could be shown in this specimen. Otherwise, no further evidence could be demonstrated for or against either of the two theories presented by previous investigators.