Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Mar;15(1):267-274.
doi: 10.1007/s12105-020-01152-0. Epub 2020 Mar 18.

Tonsillar p16-Positive Follicular Dendritic Cell Sarcoma Mimicking HPV-Related Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Case Report and Review of Reported Cases

Bailey Hutchison  1 , Sam Sadigh  2 , Judith A Ferry  2 , Trisha M Shattuck  3 , William C Faquin  2   4
Affiliations
Review

Tonsillar p16-Positive Follicular Dendritic Cell Sarcoma Mimicking HPV-Related Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Case Report and Review of Reported Cases

Bailey Hutchison et al. Head Neck Pathol. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Follicular dendritic cell sarcoma (FDCS) is a rare entity which can share morphologic features with non-keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma. Recent reports suggest that up to half of FDCSs show immunohistochemical positivity for p16 (Zhang et al., in Hum Pathol 66:40-47, 2017), a stain that is conventionally used in the risk stratification of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC). Herein, we report a case of p16-positive FDCS with clinical and histomorphologic overlap with human papilloma virus (HPV)-related OPSCC.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A CT scan showed non-specific enlargement of the right palatine tonsil up to 2.8 cm in diameter. The oropharynx and neck were otherwise unremarkable
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The well-circumscribed mass consisted of sheets of epithelioid cells with pseudonuclear inclusions. Patchy lymphocytic infiltrates and giant cells were present
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
p16 immunostaining shows cytoplasmic and nuclear positivity in > 70% of lesional cells
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The lesional cells were negative for cytokeratin and were strongly positive for dendritic cell markers CD21, CD23, and CD35
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Monda L, Warnke R, Rosai J. A primary lymph node malignancy with features suggestive of dendritic reticulum cell differentiation. A report of 4 cases. Am J Pathol. 1986;122:562–72. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Saygin C, Uzunaslan D, Ozguroglu M, Senocak M, Tuzuner N. Dendritic cell sarcoma: a pooled analysis including 462 cases with presentation of our case series. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol. 2013;88(2):253–71. doi: 10.1016/j.critrevonc.2013.05.006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Perkins SM, Shinhara ET. Interdigitating and follicular dendritic cell sarcomas: a SEER analysis. Am J Clin Oncol. 2013;36(4):395–8. doi: 10.1097/COC.0b013e31824be22b. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Go H, Jeon YK, Huh J, et al. Frequent detection of BRAF (V600E) mutations in histiocytic and dendritic cell neoplasms. Histopathology. 2014;65:261–72. doi: 10.1111/his.12416. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Massoth LR, Hung YP, Ferry JA, Hasserjian RP, Louissaint A, Montesion M, Sokol ES, Pavlick DC, et al. Comprehensive genomic profiling of 104 rare histiocytic and dendritic cell neoplasms reveals shared and distinct targetable genomic alterations. Blood. 2019;134(Supplement 1):2541. doi: 10.1182/blood-2019-123729. - DOI

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources