Alveolar soft part sarcoma: an analysis of 8 cases. Review of the literature

Eight cases of alveolar soft part carcinoma (ASPS) are presented. The average age of the patients was 28 years. There were 6 women and 2 men. The left sided and right sided tumours were equal in number. Local recurrence was not observed in any of the patient treated, but lung metastases occurred in 6 of them. Three patients died with disease the average 35 months after treatment. Histologically in one case the uniform sheets of cells were observed without alveolar arrangement. The presence of beta glucuronidase (BG), acid phosphatase (AP) and non specific esterase (NE) in tumor cells was seen in one case studied. Immunohistochemical and ultrastructural examination confirm the thesis, that ASPS consist a distinct clinico-morphologic entity, the histogenesis of which remains uncertain.