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Immunohistochemical ALK Expression in Granular Cell Atypical Fibroxanthoma: A Diagnostic Pitfall for ALK-Rearranged
Ryanne A Brown1,2,3, Jeffrey M Cloutier2, Eman Bahrani2
1Department of Pathology, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA.
Abstract:
Atypical fibroxanthoma (AFX) is a neoplasm that most commonly occurs on sun-damaged skin of the head and neck in elderly patients and that usually exhibits indolent clinical behavior with complete excision. The granular cell variant of AFX demonstrates overlapping histopathologic features with dermal non-neural granular cell tumor (NNGCT), which typically arises on the extremities of young to middle aged adults with rare reports of regional metastasis. A subset of NNGCT harbors ALK rearrangements and expresses ALK by immunohistochemistry. Here, we present 2 cases of granular cell AFX occurring on the scalp of males aged 73 and 87 with ALK expression by immunohistochemistry and no evidence of an ALK rearrangement on fluorescence in situ hybridization, representing a diagnostic pitfall for NNGCT.
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