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Conjunctival leiomyosarcoma: A fairly common tumour in an uncommon site
1Department of Anatomical Pathology, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Background:
Leiomyosarcomas of soft tissue are malignant tumours that are not infrequently encountered in clinical medicine and histopathology. Such sarcomas of the eye are, however, a rare occurrence.
Purpose:
Herein, the histopathological features of a case of conjunctival leiomyosarcoma are described. A 38-year-old HIV-positive male, who was otherwise fit and healthy, presented with redness of his right eye and a mass of the conjunctiva. Clinically, he did not have any soft-tissue masses elsewhere in the body.
Method:
He underwent monoblock excision of the conjunctival mass which was confirmed histologically to be a leiomyosarcoma. Unfortunately, the patient had not returned for follow-up examination.
Conclusion:
The differential diagnosis of a conjunctival spindle cell neoplasm is broad. While a spindle cell carcinoma is the most likely tumour, other tumours must be borne in mind so as not to misdiagnose primary sarcomas in this unusual location.
