title: Synovial sarcoma arising in the vulva cytogenetically confirmed by SYT break-apart rearrangement fluorescence in situ hybridization: A case report and discussion of diagnostic methods.
abstract: Synovial sarcoma (SS) is a soft tissue sarcoma of unknown histogenesis that rarely occurs in the female genital tract. We report a case of SS occurring in the right vulva of a young Japanese female. The tumor was composed of poorly differentiated rounded cell areas, surrounded by fibroblastic spindle-shaped cell areas. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were focally positive for cytokeratin, vimentin, CD99, Bcl-2 and neuron-specific enolase. The tumor was suspected, but was difficult to confirm as it was an SS based solely on light-microscopic and immunohistochemical findings. Although reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) failed to detect SS-specific SYT-SSX fusion gene transcripts using an RNA sample extracted from the formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor tissue, SYT break-apart rearrangement fluorescence in situ hybridization (SYT bar-FISH) successfully confirmed our diagnosis of SS for the tumor. Thus, SYT bar-FISH may be more suitable for the purpose of the molecular diagnosis of SS than conventional RT-PCR when using archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology.
authors.forename: Shigeto
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawauchi
authors.forename: Koichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ihara
authors.forename: Kei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishikawa
authors.forename: Norihiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sugino
authors.forename: Mutsuo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Kohsuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sasaki1