Brain Pathology Case of the Month - August 2016

DIAGNOSIS

Multifocal histiocytic sarcoma of the CNS (primary or metastatic?)

DISCUSSION

First described by Mathe et al in 1970, histiocytic sarcoma (HS) is a rare neoplasm that usually arises in the lymph nodes, skin and intestinal tract (5). HS is usually a disease of adults, with a peak incidence in the fifth decade (4). According to the World Health Organization, HS is defined as a neoplastic proliferation of cells, with morphological and immunophenotypic characteristics of mature tissue histiocytes (8). A diagnosis of HS requires verification of the histiocytic lineage and exclusion of other hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic malignancies. Immunohistochemistry should include histiocytic markers (CD68, lysozyme, CD11c, CD14, and CD163, the last named being regarded as a specific HS marker), which confirm the diagnosis, as well as markers that exclude possible differential diagnoses of anaplastic large cell lymphoma, diffuse large cell B-cell lymphoma, peripheral T cell lymphoma, Langerhans cell histiocytosis, carcinoma, melanoma and glial tumors.

Primary HS of the brain is extremely rare, with only 16 cases reported in the literature, of which eleven presented as a single lesion and five with multifocal lesions (1-4,6,7,9,10). The age of presentation in these cases ranged from 20 months to 69 years, without a gender predominance. The clinical symptoms were non-specific (weakness, dizziness, headache, vomiting) and also depended on the localization of the tumor (9). Of the 6 reported cases with multifocal lesions (including the current case), there were 4 females, ranging in age from 37 to 55 years and 2 males of age 11 and 44 years, with a short survival time of 3 weeks to 8 months, in spite of aggressive treatment (1,2,4,9). Most cases of HS were treated with combined surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. All the cases had an aggressive course, with a survival time up to 10 months, except a case with primary leptomeningeal HS with disease-free survival longer than 3 years following treatment with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy (6).

There is a little data about the metastatic potential of primary CNS HS. Our case is the first described case of primary CNS HS with spontaneous extra axial metastasis to the liver and pituitary gland. In 2003, Sun et al. described a case of a 13 year old boy with focal left occipital HS who underwent resection of the lesion and placement of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt (7). The patient died 3 months after surgery and a superficial lesion on the rectal serosa was found at autopsy, which had probably been seeded from the ventriculoperitoneal shunt (according to the hypothesis of the authors). Autopsy also showed extensive meningeal and ventricular involvement by HS and focal brain infiltration. Our case is the second reported case of primary CNS HS with autopsy that revealed multifocal intraventricular HS with extensive infiltration of the subarachnoid space, right oculomotorius and trigeminus nerves, spinal nerve roots, in particular the roots of the cauda equina and brain parenchyma of cerebrum, cerebellum and medulla at the sites of the tumor ependymal attachments.

In conclusion, primary CNS HS is a very rare neoplasm and difficult to diagnose without biopsy and immunohistochemistry. The presence of large, polymorphic histiocytes with polymorphic nuclei and occasional multinucleated cells should raise suspicion of HS but a wide panel of immunostainings is necessary to achieve a correct diagnosis. HS expresses one or more histiocytic markers and does not express markers of other cell lineages. The disease is extremely aggressive with a poor prognosis. There is no agreement on the most appropriate treatment because the disease is rare and the number of reported cases is limited.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We are grateful to Dr. Christopher DM Fletcher from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston for performing CD163 and PU1, and confirming our diagnosis. Thanks to Mr. Miha Juvan for his valuable technical assistance.

REFERENCES

  1. Almefty RO, Tyree TL, Fusco DJ, Coons SW, Nakaji P (2013) Primary histiocytic sarcoma of the brain mimicking cerebral abscess. J Neurosurg Pediatrics 12:51-257.
  2. Chalasani S, Hennick MR, Hocking WG, Shaw GR, Lawler B (2012) Unusual Presentation of a Rare Cancer: Histiocytic Sarcoma in the brain 16 Years After Treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Clin Med & Res11:31-35.
  3. Gentzler RD , Kahn DA (2009) Histiocytic sarcoma: A case of a 52-year-old female with two synchronous primary malignancies at presentation. The Medicine Forum 2009; 11:31-33.
  4. Gill-Samra S, Ng T, Dexter M, Wong M, Nahar N, Allsopp K, Boadle R, Varikatt W (2012) Histiocytic sarcoma of the brain. J Clin Neurosci 19:1456-1458.
  5. Mathe G, Gerard-Marchant R, Texier JL, Schlumberger JR, Berumen L, Paintrand M (1970) The two varieties of lymphoid tissue "reticulosarcomas", histiocytic and histioblastic types. Br J Cancer 24:687-695.
  6. Perez-Ruiz E, Delgado M, Sanz A, Gil AMS, Dominguez AR (2013) Primary leptomeningeal histiocytic sarcoma in a patient with a good outcome: a case report and review of the literature. J Med Case Rep 7:127.
  7. Sun W, Nordberg ML, Fowler MR (2003) Histiocytic sarcoma involving the central nervous system: clinical, immunohistochemical, and molecular genetic studies of a case with review of the literature. Am J Surg Pathol 27:258-265.
  8. Swerdlow SH, Campo E, Lee Harris N, Jaffe ES, Pileri SA, Stein H, Thiele J, Vardiman JW (eds) (2008) WHO Classification of Tumors of Hematopoietic and Lymphoid tissue. Lyon : IARC Press 356-357.
  9. Wang J, Li T,Chen H, Liu Q (2012) A case of primary central nervous system histiocytic sarcoma. Clin Neurol & Neurosurg 114:1074- 1076.
  10. Wu W, Sayit AT, Vinters HV, Pope W, Mirsadraei L, Said J (2013) Primary central nervous system histiocytic sarcoma presenting as a postradiation sarcoma: case report and literature review. Hum Pathol 44:1177-1183.

Contributed by Danijela Oštrić, MD; Marija Todosijević, MD; Anja Jeričević, MD; Saša Šega Jazbec MD, PhD; Mara Popović, MD, PhD

International Society of Neuropathology