title: Fine-needle aspiration of epithelioid malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (epithelioid malignant schwannoma).
abstract: The epithelioid variant of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST), also known as malignant epithelioid schwannoma, is a relatively rare and recently characterized clinicopathologic entity. The epithelioid variant of MPNST shares many clinical features with conventional MPNST but is characterized by different histologic and cytologic features. These include a distinctive nesting pattern and an abundance of cytoplasm not seen in histology of conventional nerve sheath tumors. Cytologically, the epitheliod variant shows a propensity to cellular discohesiveness and a plasmacytoid or epitheliod appearance that is in contradistinction to the spindled appearance of the usual MPNST. Herein, we report our experience with fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of two epithelioid malignant schwannomas and discuss the FNA cytologic differential diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.
authors.forename: L G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Dodd
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scully
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Layfield
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000379:methods*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018317:Nerve Sheath Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D009442:Neurilemmoma / Q000473:pathology*; D010524:Peripheral Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*