Assessment of diagnostic utility of anti-CD34 in soft tissue tumors

We have performed this study to define the usefulness of an anti-human progenitor cell antigen-1(anti-CD34) to distinguish some kinds of soft tissue tumors in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. Sixty three cases of vascular, fibrohistiocytic, neural and other tumors were immunostained for CD34 using the streptavidin-biotin immunoperoxidase method. All of the vascular tumors including hemangiomas, epithelioid hemangioendotheliomas, hemangiopericytomas, and lymphangiomas revealed strong CD34 positivity along the cytoplasmic membranes. Among the fibrohistiocytic lesions, all of five examples of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans showed diffuse, strong, and linear staining along the cytoplasmic processes. In contrast, none of the benign fibrous histiocytomas and malignant fibrous histiocytomas expressed CD34. CD34-positive cells with delicate dendritic processes could be identified within the normal nerves, neuromas, neurofibromas, and Antoni B areas of neurilemomas. However, all of the malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors were uniformly negative. In addition, an epithelioid sarcoma and four cases of leiomyosarcoma revealed focal, weak positivity with anti-CD34. In conclusion, this study demonstrated variable anti-CD34 staining pattern of certain fibrohistiocytic, muscle, and neural tumors and confirmed the potential usefulness of anti-CD34 in differentiating fibrous histiocytoma from dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. It's also helpful to diagnose epithelioid hemangioendothelioma from other epithelioid-type tumors.