Open AccessHemangioendothelioma of soft tissue: Cytological dilemma in two cases at unusual sites
Author(s) -
Shravanti Mukherjee,
Jayati Mallick,
Prabir C Pal,
S. Chattopadhyay
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of cytology/journal of cytology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.267
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 0974-5165
pISSN - 0970-9371
DOI - 10.4103/0970-9371.93241
Subject(s) - medicine , soft tissue , pathology , hemangioendothelioma , dilemma , anatomy , philosophy , epistemology
Hemangioendothelioma is a rare vascular tumor of intermediate malignancy. Cytologically, it can simulate a non-vascular malignant tumor. We report two cases of this tumor, which were misdiagnosed at cytology. In the first case, a 27-year-old man presented with an anterior abdominal wall tumor. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of the tumor showed polygonal cells with vacuolated cytoplasm in clusters having moderate nuclear atypia in a background of necrosis. A diagnosis of metastatic carcinoma was made. The histological examination showed features of epithelioid hemangioendothelioma. In the second case, a 13-year-old female child presented with unilateral enlargement of the right tonsil. At ultrasound-guided FNAC, a diagnosis of, 'small round cell tumor, could be consistent with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma,' was made. The histological examination showed features of papillary intralymphatic angioendothelioma (Dabska's tumor). We conclude that epithelioid hemangioendothelioma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of metastatic carcinoma and small round cell tumor even at unusual sites.