A Rare Case of Cytokeratin-Positive Interstitial Reticulum Cell Sarcoma and Review of the Entity

Abstract

The tumors of dendritic/reticulum cells constitutes the rarest tumors affecting the lymphoid tissues. Among them tumors derived from fibroblastic reticular cells (FBRCs) are very rare, and those of cytokeratin (CK)-positive interstitial reticulum cells (CIRCs) origin are even more rare. These tumors can be easily misdiagnosed as tumors of other dendritic cells, myofibroblastic tumors or even metastatic poorly differentiated carcinomas. Less than twenty such cases have been reported in the literature till date. We present such a rare case of CIRC sarcoma in cervical lymph node of a 64-year-old man.

Keywords: Cytokeratin; Immunohistochemistry; Lymph node; Reticulum cell; Sarcoma.

Fig. 1

Sheets of epithelioid cells with vesicular nuclei, prominent nucleoli and abundant cytoplasm along with atypical mitotic figure and lymphocytes in the background (H and E, ×400)

Fig. 2

Immunostaining of neoplastic cells with vimentin (×400)

Fig. 3

Immunostaining of neoplastic cells with SMA (×400)

Fig. 4

Immunostaining of neoplastic cells with CD68 (×400)

Fig. 5

Immunostaining of neoplastic cells with cytokeratin AE1/AE3 (×400)

Fig. 6

Immunostaining of neoplastic cells with Ki67 (×400)