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Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Dec 16, 2025; 17(12): 110594
Published online Dec 16, 2025. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v17.i12.110594
Endoscopic features of oral and pharyngolaryngeal papillomas and their role in distinguishing squamous cell carcinoma
Masaya Iwamuro, Takehiro Tanaka, Kenta Hamada, Yoshiyasu Kono, Seiji Kawano, Yoshiro Kawahara, Motoyuki Otsuka
Masaya Iwamuro, Kenta Hamada, Yoshiyasu Kono, Seiji Kawano, Motoyuki Otsuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama 700-8558, Japan
Takehiro Tanaka, Department of Pathology, Okayama University Hospital, Okayama 700-8558, Japan
Yoshiro Kawahara, Department of Practical Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama 700-8558, Japan
Author contributions: Iwamuro M, Hamada K, Kono Y, Kawano S, Kawahara Y, and Otsuka M contributed to data acquisition; Iwamuro M, Tanaka T, Kawahara Y, and Kono Y were involved in data analysis; Iwamuro M designed this study; Tanaka T contributed to the pathological diagnosis. All the authors have read and approved the final version of this manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This retrospective study was performed in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of our hospital (Number 2310-007).
Informed consent statement: The requirement for written informed consent was waived by the Ethics Committee of our hospital due to the retrospective nature of the study and the use of anonymous clinical data for analysis.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Masaya Iwamuro, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2-5-1 Shikata-cho, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8558, Japan. iwamuromasaya@yahoo.co.jp
Received: June 11, 2025
Revised: August 26, 2025
Accepted: October 29, 2025
Published online: December 16, 2025
Processing time: 189 Days and 14.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This retrospective study highlighted the endoscopic features of oral and pharyngolaryngeal papillomas and identified three distinct morphological patterns: Salmon roe-like, polyps without capillary transparency, and pinecone-like. By contrasting these features with those of squamous cell carcinomas, namely, uneven lobulated structures, irregular capillaries, and flat lesion components, this study provides practical guidance for distinguishing these lesions during esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Our findings may reduce unnecessary biopsies and improve diagnostic accuracy, offering endoscopists valuable insights into oropharyngeal region evaluations. To our knowledge, this is the first detailed analysis of the endoscopic patterns of papillomas in these regions.