Cherubism: Diagnostic Imaging and Review of the Literature in Japan

Cherubism is a nonneoplastic disease of bone characterized by clinical, bilateral, painless enlargements of the jaws that are said to give the patient a cherubic appearance. Cherubism may appear in solitary cases or in many members of the family, often in multiple generations. On radiography the lesions have the appearance of bilateral multilocular radiolucent areas. On histopathologic evaluation the lesions show proliferating fibrous connective tissue containing numerous multinucleated giant cells. Since it was first described by Jones in 1933, many cases have been documented without restriction to any one country or ethnic group, but only a few cases have been reported in Japan, apparently because it is rare here. We report a case of cherubism in a 15-year-old boy and review the Japanese literature.