Gene Expression Profiling of Head and Neck Tumors Identifies FOXP1 and SOX10 Expression as Useful for Distinguishing Ameloblastoma From Basaloid Salivary Gland Tumors.

Odontogenic tumors show considerable morphologic heterogeneity and at times the diagnosis can be challenging. Ameloblastoma, the most common odontogenic tumor, can have morphologic similarity to some salivary gland tumors and therefore we sought to identify biomarkers that might aid in the diagnosis by performing transcriptome wide gene expression profiling of 80 odontogenic and salivary gland neoplasms. These data identified the FOXP1/SOX10 expression profile as characteristic of many odontogenic tumors including ameloblastoma but largely absent in salivary gland tumors.