Sarcomas of the mediastinum with epithelioid morphology

While soft tissue sarcomas typically have a spindled or pleomorphic appearance, a subset of malignant soft tissue neoplasms can have a prominent epithelioid morphology. In complex anatomic sites such as the mediastinum, such tumors can often be mistaken for a carcinoma or mesothelioma. Frequent expression of cytokeratin staining can further confound the diagnostic process and familiarity with these entities can help prevent an erroneous diagnosis. Particular entities that have been reported to occur in the mediastinum with such features include dedifferentiated liposarcoma, pleomorphic liposarcoma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor, synovial sarcoma, SMARCA4-deficient thoracic sarcoma, alveolar soft part sarcoma and clear cell sarcoma. Many of these tumors exhibit unique clinical, genetic, molecular or immunohistochemical features which allow for accurate characterization. For example, pleomorphic liposarcoma contains bizarre appearing lipoblasts and dedifferentiated liposarcoma exhibits MDM2 gene amplification that is typically confirmed by fluorescence in-situ hybridization. Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor will often arise in association with a nerve or neurofibroma. Synovial sarcoma consistently exhibits rearrangements involving the SS18 gene and SMARCA4-deficient thoracic sarcoma shows loss of SMARCA4 staining in the tumor cells. Alveolar soft part sarcoma demonstrates an ASPL-TFE3 fusion transcript. Clear cell sarcoma often shows an EWSR1-ATF1 fusion transcript. When encountering a sarcoma of the mediastinum with epithelioid features, familiarity with these and other characteristics can help insure a correct diagnosis.