Histopathological, immunohistochemical and molecular cytogenetic analysis of 21 spindle cell/sclerosing rhabdomyosarcomas

Recently, spindle cell/sclerosing rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) has been recognized as another distinct variant of a RMS. We evaluated clinicopathological features of 21 cases of spindle cell and sclerosing RMS and performed fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) testing in 10 (47.6%) tumours. Twenty-one tumours occurred in 16 males and 5 females (mean age, 19.7 years); commonly in the head and neck region (8) (38%) and extremities (7) (33.3%), followed by paratesticular region (2) (9.5%), chest wall (1), abdomen (1), pelvis (1) and paraspinal region (1). Average tumour size was 7.9 cm. Histopathologically, tumours that were spindle cell type (8) (38%) mostly occurred in the head and neck region, while sclerosing type (10) (47.6%) mostly occurred in the extremities. Remaining three (14.2%) tumours were mixed (sclerosing with spindle cell type). Tumour areas resembling embryonal RMS (ERMS) and alveolar RMS (ARMS) were noted in eight and three tumours respectively. Immunohistochemically, tumour cells were positive for desmin (21/21) (100%), MyoD1 (19/19) (100%), myogenin (13/15) (86.6%), SMA (2/3) and MIC2 (1/8) (12.5%). On FISH testing, none of the 10 tumours exhibited RMS1 (PAX3-FOXO1) or RMS 2 (PAX7-FOXO1) fusion. Eighteen patients underwent surgical resection and were offered adjuvant chemotherapy (CT) (4 cases), adjuvant CT + radiotherapy (RT) (4 cases) and adjuvant RT (1 case). Two patients underwent CT and a single patient received CT + RT. On follow-up (16 cases) (2-36 months), six tumours recurred and nine metastasized. Spindle/sclerosing RMSs are aggressive tumours and occur commonly in the head and neck and extremity sites. These tumours are histopathologically interrelated. Their immunohistochemical and cytogenetic profile is closer to ERMS than ARMS.