title: Malignant fibrous histiocytoma: an ultrastructural perspective.
abstract: Malignant fibrous histiocytoma is a frequent diagnosis, but the relationship of the tumors to histologically similar soft tissue neoplasms is controversial. In this study, 157 examples representing the 4 main subtypes were reviewed by light microscopy and each tumor was studied with the electron microscope. Immunohistochemical stains were performed on 77 tumors. Electron micrographs on 100 fibrosarcomas were reviewed for comparison. Malignant fibrous histiocytomas often closely resemble fibrosarcomas at the ultrastructural level and differences between the two are generally of degree only. Evidence for true histiocytic differentiation was not found. The immunohistochemical results did not contradict the authors' impression from electron microscopy that malignant fibrous histiocytoma forms part of the histologic spectrum of tumors of fibroblasts.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030, USA.
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: N G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Ordóñez
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mackay
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005354:Fibrosarcoma / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018219:Histiocytoma, Benign Fibrous / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008875:Middle Aged; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure*