Monomorphic adenoma of minor salivary glands: a reappraisal and report of nine new cases.

A search of intraoral lesions on which biopsies were performed within a five-year period at the University of Connecticut disclosed 26 benign neoplasms of minor salivary gland origin, of which nine were classified as variants of monomorphic adenoma. Of these, eight were considered to be basal cell, basaloid, or canalicular types. As there was no clear histologic distinction between these histologic subtypes, and as all such lesions (basal cell, basaloid, or canalicular adenomas) displayed a noticeable predilection for the upper lip, it was concluded that the three are variants of one entity and need not be separated. It is recommended that the term basal cell adenoma henceforth be adapted to describe all of such variants.