Soft Tissue, Glomus tumour [LMP66974]

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Diagnostic Modality: 
Whole Slide Image
Disease Category: 
Neoplasia
Diagnosis: 
Glomus tumour
Species: 
Human
Organ System: 
Bones, Joints, and Soft-Tissue Tumours
Gender: 
Female
Age: 
43 years
Diagnosis Code: 
ICD-10: D18 | ICD-O: 8711/0
Slide Contributor Information
Sidiropoulos, K. G., Latta, E.

Clinical History

Soft tissue lesion from right ring finger.

Clinical Discussion

Glomus tumours are benign tumours derived from the modified smooth muscle cells of the thermoregulatory glomus body, and represent approximately 2% of soft tissue tumors. Typically they are found as painful subungual lesions, however may be found in a wide variety of sites in the body.

Glomus tumours are composed of branching vascular channels and nests of small polygonal cells arranged around the vessels with regular spacing or a "cookie cutter" appearance. The cells have identifiable cellular borders and indistinct nucleoli. Glomus cells stain positive for smooth muscle actin, and usually do not stain for S100 or cytokeratins (Gombos Z et al., 2008). Malignant glomus tumours are rare, but have been reported to occur (Folpe AL et al, 2001).

See related content for references:

1) Folpe, AL., et al. Am J Surg Pathol. 2001 Jan;25(1):1-12.
2) Gombos, Z., Zhang PJ. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2008 Sep;132(9):1448-52.

Related Content

Related External Links: 
Folpe, AL., et al. Atypical and malignant glomus tumors: analysis of 52 cases, with a proposal for the reclassification of ...
Gombos, Z., Zhang, PJ. Glomus tumor. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2008 Sep;132(9):1448-52