A case of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans of the vulva with a COL1A1/PDGFB fusion identical to a case of giant cell fibroblastoma

VANNI, ROBERTA;FAA, GAVINO;DETTORI, TINUCCIA;MELIS, GIAN BENEDETTO;Dumanski JP;O’Brien KP

2000-01-01

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Abstract

Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is a highly recurrent low-grade soft tissue sarcoma, which is usually located on the trunk. Presentation in the vulva is rare, with only 13 cases being reported to date, none of which have been investigated at the cytogenetic or molecular level. Specific cytogenetic abnormalities, involving chromosomes 17 and 22, are characteristic features of DFSP and giant cell fibroblastoma (GCF), a tumor closely related to DFSP. These chromosomal rearrangements result in the fusion of the COL1A1 and PDGFB genes in both lesions and show wide variation in the position of the fusion point in COL1A1. Here, we describe a case of DFSP of the vulva with a typical monotonous storiform pattern, with no foci of multinucleated giant cells. Cytogenetic analysis showed a 47,XX,+r karyotype in 50% of the cells, and molecular investigation disclosed the presence of a transcript fusing COL1A1 exon 37 to PDGFB exon 2. This is the first case of DFSP showing such a fusion point, which is intriguingly identical to that found in a GCF case, indicating that the COL1A1/PDGFB fusion point position does not seem to affect tumor morphology. This finding further underlines the very close relationship between these two morphologically distinct entities.