High-grade myxoinflammatory fibroblastic sarcoma: a report of 23 cases

We describe 23 cases of high-grade myxoinflammatory fibroblastic sarcoma (MIFS). The patients were 15 women and 8 men, with the age ranging at the time of diagnosis from 39 to 93 years (mean, 64.3 years; median, 66 years). Follow-up was available for 18 patients, of whom 9 developed metastatic disease; 7 of these died. Most tumors showed a predilection for the soft tissues of the extremities, with 14 cases involving the lower limb and 5 the upper extremity. However, in both sites, the acral parts were affected in only 1 case each. Of the 4 remaining tumors, 2 were found in axilla, 1 was found in sacral area, and 1 developed in the scar on the breast, 14 years after previous excision of a mammary carcinoma and subsequent local irradiation. The tumor size ranged from 1.3 cm to as much as 30 cm in the largest dimension with a mean size of 8.3 cm. Histologically, the tumors were characterized by occurrence of 3 types of characteristic cells, including (1) lipoblast-like cells with an ample, distended, mucin-filled cytoplasm compartmentalized by a variable number of intracytoplasmic septa, thus remotely resembling soccer balls; (2) large, polygonal, bizarre ganglion-like cells similar to those seen in the Hodgkin disease, also called Reed-Sternberg-like cells. Within an ample, deeply eosinophilic cytoplasm, there was an oval nucleus with vesicular chromatin and a large, inclusion-like nucleolus. Binucleated, multinucleated, or more pleomorphic forms of these cells were also present; (3) cells with emperipolesis of variable sizes, ranging from very inconspicuous neoplastic cells containing only one to a few engulfed cells to conspicuous large ones having many inflammatory cells, usually polymorphonuclear leukocytes admixed with various numbers of some lymphoid cells, within the cytoplasm. Quite often, we found elements that combined the histologic features of all the above 3 characteristic tumor cell types. In 2 tumors, we found an additional undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma component, whereas in another tumor, a chondrosarcomatous moiety was evident. For comparison, we studied 10 cases of pleomorphic hyalinizing angiectatic tumor (PHAT) of soft tissues. Based on the identification of morphological changes typical for MIFS within most of the cases of PHAT, we suggest that most cases of PHAT represent examples of MIFS merely having hyaline ectatic vessels.