Rhabdomyosarcoma arising in a congenital melanocytic nevus

A variety of malignancies have been reported to arise within congenital melanocytic nevi, most commonly malignant melanoma, but rarely rhabdomyosarcoma, liposarcoma, and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor as well. There have been only three documented cases of rhabdomyosarcoma arising within congenital melanocytic nevi: two embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas and one mixed liposarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma. One of these cases was also associated with neurocutaneous melanosis. We report a fourth case of rhabdomyosarcoma originating from a congenital melanocytic nevus. A 4-year-old girl presented with a large ulcerated nodule that developed within a hairy congenital nevus on her left gluteal and sacral regions. Her parents refused postoperative adjuvant therapy, and she died 13 months after surgical excision. Histologic sections showed a lesion with two distinct components. There was an expansile proliferation of pleomorphic cells within a fibromyxoid stroma. The neoplastic cells were spindled, and some had abundant eosinophilic globular cytoplasm with occasional cross-striations characteristic of rhabdomyoblasts. They strongly expressed desmin and myoglobin and were negative for S-100 protein and HMB-45. The tumor merged with an adjacent congenital melanocytic nevus characterized by a proliferation of uniform nonatypical melanocytes. The finding of both rhabdomyoblastic and melanocytic differentiation within the same lesion lends support to the hypothesis of their derivation from common pluripotential stem cells or neural crest cells.