Epithelioid sarcoma of the spine: a case report and review

Jeong Hyun Yoo

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DOI: 10.4236/ojcd.2011.11001                

Abstract

Epithelioid sarcoma is a rare malignant soft tissue neoplasm commonly involving extremities of young adults and rarely occurring in the trunk area. It re-sembles a chronic inflammatory process and mimics benign reactive granuloma or other benign diseases. Despite its indolence and slow growth, the prognosis is poor with high recurrence and early lymph node spreading and hematogeneous distant metastasis. Involvement of the spine is extremely rare and diffi-cult to diagnose correctly in clinical presentation and pathology. We describe our experience a case of epi-thelioid sarcoma involving lumbar spine. A pre-ope- rative spine MRI showed a large solid and necrotic paraspinal mass which extended into the spinal canal with cord compression, and bone destruction. Final correct diagnosis was confirmed by immunohisto-chemical studies. When young adults present with a spinal lesion that has unusual large necrotic soft tissue mass, immunohistochemical studies are recommended for promptly determining the possibility of spinal epithelioid sarcoma.

Keywords

Sarcoma; Epithelioid: Spine; Neoplasm: MR Image

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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