Alveolar Soft-Part Sarcoma with Unusual Mitochondrial Findings: A Case Report

Abstract

The histogenesis of alveolar soft-part sarcoma (ASPS) has not been firmly established since first being defined in 1952 by Christopherson et al. [1]. Various proposals for cell types, including non-chromaffin paraganglioma, malignant granular cell tumor, neural tumor, myogenic tumor, rhabdo-myosarcoma, and renin-producing tumor, have been made but not proven [3-12]. Classical ultrastructural findings have been membrane- bound rhomboid crystals, round noncrystalline secretory granules, and numerous Golgi complexes [12-15]. Immunohistochemistry has not shown a consistent profile in these tumors, which have been stained variably for vimentin, desmin, myoglobin, muscle specific actin, S-100 protein, HMB-45, neuron specific enolase, cytokeratin, and NK1 -C3 (melanoma-specific antibody) [2, 3,8, 10, 12, 16, 21-19].

Key Words:

• Alveolar soft part sarcoma
• electron microscopy
• mitochandria