Malignant Melanoma of the Tongue: A Scoping Review

Malignant melanoma of the tongue is a rare and highly aggressive neoplasm, constituting less than 2% of oral melanomas. Due to its rarity and atypical clinical presentation, diagnosis and management pose significant challenges. This study provides a scoping review of research on melanoma of the tongue to determine the available data on the epidemiology, clinical features, histopathological characteristics, treatment strategies, and outcomes of this malignancy. Our literature search identified papers published from 1941 to 2024, and 47 individual cases were analyzed. The mean age at diagnosis was 58.6 years, with a male predominance (58.1%). Lesions were most frequently located on the body and lateral borders of the tongue. A high percentage (38.5%) presented with distant metastases at diagnosis, commonly involving the lungs and brain. Histopathological examination highlighted spindle cell morphology in many cases, with immunohistochemical markers such as HMB-45 and S-100 proving essential for diagnosis. Wide local excision with or without neck dissection was the primary treatment, though recurrence rates remained high (20.5%). Despite aggressive management, overall outcomes were poor, reflecting the melanoma's advanced stage at diagnosis in most cases. This scoping review underscores the need for heightened clinical suspicion, particularly for pigmented or ulcerative lesions of the tongue. Early diagnosis, multidisciplinary management, and further research into the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying tongue melanoma are crucial to improve outcomes for this rare and aggressive disease.

A Rare Case of Clear Cell Sarcoma of the Tongue: A Case Report

Clear cell sarcoma (CCS), previously known as soft tissue melanoma due to similarities with melanoma, is a rare and aggressive neoplasm. This tumor predominantly occurs in the lower limbs and rarely affects the tongue, as well as other head and neck locations. To our knowledge, only five cases have been reported in the English literature. CCS presents many similar morphological and immunohistochemical features to those of melanomas, sarcomatoid cell carcinoma, angiomatoid histiocytoma, and Ewing sarcoma, which makes the diagnosis difficult, especially in cases of uncommon locations. The treatment is based on oncological surgery and adjuvant radiation therapy as these tumors show low sensitivity to chemotherapy. This study aimed to report a case of an 88-year-old male patient who presented a large, rapidly growing nodular lesion on the right border of the mobile tongue diagnosed with CCS of the tongue.

"E-MGNET": Extra-Enteric Malignant Gastrointestinal Neuroectodermal Tumor- A Clinicopathological and Molecular Genetic Study of 11 Cases

Malignant gastrointestinal neuroectodermal tumors (MGNET), also known as "gastrointestinal clear cell sarcoma-like tumor", are very rare, aggressive sarcomas characterized by enteric location, distinctive pathologic features, and EWSR1/FUS::ATF1/CREB1 fusions. Despite identical genetics, the clinicopathologic features of MGNET are otherwise quite different from clear cell sarcoma of soft parts (CCS). Only exceptional extra-enteric MGNET (E-MGNET) have been reported. We report a series of 11 E-MGNET, the largest to date. Cases diagnosed as MGNET and occurring in non-intestinal locations were retrieved. Clinical follow-up was obtained. The tumors occurred in 3 males and 8 females (14-70 years of age, median 33 years) and involved the soft tissues of the neck (3), shoulder (1), buttock (2), orbit (1), and tongue/parapharyngeal space (1), the urinary bladder (1) and the falciform ligament/liver (1). Tumors showed morphologic features of enteric MGNET (small, relatively uniform, round to ovoid cells with round, regular nuclei containing small nucleoli, growing in multinodular and vaguely lobular patterns, with solid, pseudoalveolar and pseudopapillary architecture). Immunohistochemical results were: S100 protein (11/11), SOX10 (11/11), synaptophysin (3/10), CD56 (7/9), CD117 (3/9), DOG1 (0/4), ALK (4/8), chromogranin A (0/10), HMB45 (0/11), Melan-A (0/11), tyrosinase (0/4), MiTF (0/11). NGS results were: EWSR1::ATF1 (7 cases), EWSR1::CREB1 (3 cases) and EWSR1::PBX1 (1 case). The EWSR1::PBX1-positive tumor was similar to other cases, including osteoclast-like giant cells, and negative for myoepithelial markers. Clinical follow-up (range: 10 to 70 months; median 34 months) showed 4 patients dead of disease (10.5, 12, 25 and 64 months after diagnosis), 1 patient alive with extensive metastases (43 months after diagnosis), 1 patient alive with persistent local disease (11 months after diagnosis), and 4 alive without disease (10, 47, 53 and 70 months after diagnosis). One case is too recent for follow-up. The clinicopathologic and molecular genetic features of rare E-MGNET are essentially identical to those occurring in intestinal locations. Otherwise-typical E-MGNET may harbor EWSR1::PBX1, a finding previously unreported in this tumor type. As in enteric locations, the behavior of E-MGNET is aggressive, with metastases and/or death from disease in at least 50% of patients. E-MGNET should be distinguished from CCS and other tumors with similar fusions. ALK expression appears to be a common feature of tumors harboring EWSR1/FUS::ATF1/CREB1 fusion but is unlikely to predict therapeutic response to ALK inhibition. Future advances in our understanding of these unusual tumors will hopefully lead to improved nomenclature.

Malignant gastrointestinal neuroectodermal tumor in head and neck: two challenging cases with diverse morphology and different considerations for differential diagnosis

Malignant gastrointestinal neuroectodermal tumor (MGNET) is a sarcoma typically involving the gastrointestinal tract with neuroectodermal differentiation and EWSR1-ATF1/CREB1 fusions. Recently, rare MGNET cases were reported in extragastrointestinal sites. We identified 2 cases of MGNET arising in unprecedented laryngeal and intracranial locations, respectively. Both cases showed spindle and epithelioid tumor cells with amphophilic to clear cytoplasm and occasionally prominent nucleoli, arranged in solid, fascicular, and pseudoalveolar patterns. Case 1 exhibited moderate to marked nuclear atypia and focal intraepithelial component. In contrast, case 2 comprised predominantly low-grade epithelioid cells with extensive pseudopapillary structures. Both tumors showed an S100/SOX10-positive and HMB45/melan-A-negative immunoprofile as well as EWSR1-ATF1 fusion. A chief obstacle in diagnosing case 1 was the histologic and immunophenotypic resemblance to melanoma. The striking pseudopapillary architecture and the intracranial location of case 2 rendered differential diagnoses including meningioma and ependymoma. With the peculiar locations and morphology, these cases posed great diagnostic challenge.

The contribution of Juan Rosai to the pathology of soft tissue tumors

The conceptual evolution in the field of soft tissue tumor pathology has been mostly driven by a relatively small group of individuals that includes giants of the past and the present such as James Ewing, Raffaele Lattes, Arthur Purdy Stout, Franz Enzinger, Sharon Weiss, Lennart Angervall, Harry Evans, Marku Miettinen, and Christopher Fletcher. Juan Rosai, not only exerted an immense impact on surgical pathology in general, but in consideration of his unique talent in identifying novel clinicopathologic entities, has also contributed remarkably to current understanding of mesenchymal neoplasms. The creation of desmoplastic small round cell tumor certainly ranks among his most relevant efforts, although he actually put his mark on a broad variety of soft tissue lesions, including vascular neoplasms. It would be impossible to include in a single article all the entities that he created or contributed to refine; therefore, this review is limited to a selection of what we believe represent true milestones.

Clear cell sarcoma-like/malignant gastrointestinal neuroectodermal tumor of the tongue: a clinicopathologic and molecular case report

Malignant gastrointestinal neuroectodermal tumor (M-GNET) and clear cell sarcoma (CCS) of soft tissue represent closely related, extremely rare, malignant mesenchymal neoplasm of uncertain differentiation. Both entities are characterized genetically by the same molecular alterations represented by the presence of EWSR1-ATF1 and, more rarely, EWSR1-CREB1 fusion genes. The latter translocation seems to be more represented in M-GNET that, despite significant morphologic overlap with CCS, tends to lack overt features of melanocytic differentiation. Most M-GNET occur in the lower gastrointestinal tract, whereas occurrence in the upper tract has been reported only exceptionally. The differential diagnosis represents a major challenge, and accurate diagnosis impact significantly on therapeutic planning. We herein report the clinicopathologic features of a molecularly confirmed M-GNET that arose at the base of the tongue and review the pertinent literature.

Intra-Extracranial Primary Clear Cell Sarcoma: The First Report and Review of the Literature

BACKGROUND

Clear cell sarcoma (CCS) is a rare malignant soft tissue tumor with poor prognosis owing to metastasis and insensitive response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

METHODS

We first searched PubMed and Embase using the terms "clear cell sarcoma," "malignant melanoma of soft tissue," "head," and "neck." In the 15 articles selected for literature review, only 27% (4/15) of patients were diagnosed with primary CCS of the head. Pathologically, those tumors arose from either the scalp or the superficial temporal fascia, but none invaded the skull and brain. Next, the search was performed in the same database using the terms "clear cell sarcoma," "malignant melanoma of soft tissue," and "bone," and only 24 articles were selected.

RESULTS

In the case reported here, a 36-year-old woman was found to have a palpable mass located at the left temporal-occipital region, and surgical finding confirmed the invasion into the skull and the brain. The diagnosis of primary CCS was made because of the detection of t(12;22)(q13;q12) in >50% of tumor cells by fluorescence in situ hybridization, and metastasis to the lymph nodes and lungs was discovered by postoperative positron emission tomography-computed tomography.

CONCLUSIONS

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of primary central nervous system CCS. Primary CCS may involve the skull and should be one of the differential diagnoses for intra-extracranial communicating tumors. Further research on biological characteristics and molecular targeted therapy of CCS are needed to improve its poor prognosis.

[Clear cell sarcoma or gastrointestinal neuroectodermal tumor (GNET) of the tongue? Case report and review of the literature of an extremely rare tumor localization]

Clear cells sarcomas (CCS) are exceptionally rare in the tongue, with, to our knowledge, only three previous reports in anglo-saxon literature. Through our case, we will discuss the differential diagnosis of clear cells tumors of the tongue and bring this tumour closer to the newly described entity of the gastrointestinal tract named "clear cells sarcoma-like gastrointestinal (SCCLGI)", recently renamed "gastrointestinal neuroectodermal tumour (GNET)". SCCLGI/GNET share morphological and molecular characteristics with SCC but had until then been observed only in the digestive tract. Our case could be a lingual localization of a SCCLGI/GNET. SCC and SCCLGI/GNET characteristic molecular profil involves EWSR1-ATF1 [t(12; 22) (q13; q12)] and EWSR1-CREB1 [t(2; 22) (q34; q12)] fusion genes, but it is not specific of these tumours.

Oral malignant gastrointestinal neuroectodermal tumour with junctional component mimicking mucosal melanoma

Malignant gastrointestinal neuroectodermal tumour (GNET) is a recently characterised rare and aggressive tumour that typically arises in association with the small intestine of adults. We present a novel case of this entity and expand the spectrum of its reported morphological features. The patient was a 5-year-old female, the youngest reported patient affected by the condition, and presented with extra-abdominal disease. The histopathological features included the presence of a junctional component of the palatal tumour, which mimicked mucosal melanoma, a feature that has not been previously reported in GNET. Whole genome and RNA sequencing was performed that demonstrated the EWSR1-ATF1 translocation characteristic of GNET. Knowledge of this entity and its features, together with careful morphological assessment supplemented by judicious immunohistochemical and molecular studies should enable the correct diagnosis to be established.

Primary clear cell sarcoma of the head and neck: a case series with review of the literature

BACKGROUND

Clear cell sarcoma typically arises in deep soft tissues of the foot/ankle. Primary head and neck clear cell sarcoma is rare. We report three molecularly confirmed primary head and neck clear cell sarcoma and review the literature.

METHODS

Head and neck clear cell sarcoma with no primary elsewhere were retrieved from archival/consultation files. English language literature review of all reported head and neck clear cell sarcoma was performed.

RESULTS

Three cases were identified. The tumors, all in men, presented on the scalp of a 33-year-old, face of a 20-year-old and tongue of a 44-year-old. Tumors ranged from 0.6 to 1.4 cm. All had typical features of clear cell sarcoma, including nests of tumor cells divided by fibrous septae. One had multinucleated wreath-like giant cells. One had a focal junctional component. Immunohistochemistry was positive for S100 (three out of three), HMB45 (three out of three) and Melan-A (two out of three). All had EWSR1 rearrangements by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Follow up available for one patient revealed no evidence of disease after wide excision and radiation. Seven additional reported cases were identified and tabulated.

CONCLUSION

Head and neck clear cell sarcoma is rare but should be considered in the differential diagnosis of nested tumors with fibrous septae. Molecular analysis should be considered for definitive diagnosis regardless of location.

Primary pulmonary clear cell sarcoma-the first two reported cases

We report two cases (male patients 50 and 55 years old) of clear cell sarcoma ("melanoma of soft parts") arising in the lung, of which one case showed regional lymph node metastases. Histologically, both tumors displayed varying clear epithelioid and spindle neoplastic cells arranged in storiform and nested growth patterns, separated by thin fibrovascular septa. Immunohistochemical studies demonstrated positive expression of S-100 protein, HMB-45 and Melan-A in one case and S-100 protein only in the other. Fluorescence in situ hybridization showed positive EWSR1 gene rearrangement, and a presence of EWS-ATF1 fusion transcript was confirmed by RT-PCR and sequencing in one case.

Whole-exome sequencing identifies a somatic missense mutation of NBN in clear cell sarcoma of the salivary gland

Clear cell sarcoma (CCS) is a rare, low-grade carcinoma commonly located in the distal extremities of young adults involving tendons and aponeuroses. CCS is characterized by its poor prognosis due to late diagnosis, multiple local recurrence, propensity to late metastases, and a high rate of tumor-related mortality. The genetic cause for CCS is thought to be EWSR1 gene translocation. However, CCS lacking a translocation may have other, as yet uncharacterized, genetic mutations that can cause the same pathological effect. A combination of whole‑exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing of cancer tissue and venous blood from a patient diagnosed with CCS of the salivary gland revealed a somatic missense mutation, c.1061C>T (p.P354L), in exon 9 of the Nibrin gene (NBN). This somatic missense mutation led to the conversion of proline to leucine (p.P354L), resulting in deleterious effects for the NBN protein. Multiple-sequence alignments showed that codon 354, where the mutation (c.1061C>T) occurs, is located within a phylogenetically conserved region. In conclusion, we here report a somatic missense mutation c.1061C>T (p.P354L) in the NBN gene in a patient with CCS lacking an EWSR1-ATF1 fusion. Our findings broaden the genotypic spectrum of CCS and provide new molecular insight that should prove useful in the future clinical genetic diagnosis of CCS.

Primary Ewing Family of Tumors of the Jaw Has a Better Prognosis Compared to Tumors of Extragnathic Sites

PURPOSE

Primary Ewing sarcoma of the jaw is rare. The aim of this study was to describe new cases of primary Ewing sarcoma of the jaw and investigate reported prognostic factors of Ewing sarcoma in this series and treatment outcome.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Six patients with primary Ewing sarcoma of the jaw were treated at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) from 1992 through 2013. Clinical data, pathology reports, treatment prescribed, treatment regimens, outcome, and follow-up information were reviewed.

RESULTS

Five of 6 patients were female and 5 cases were in the mandible. No patient presented with metastatic disease at diagnosis. All cases were positive for CD99, and 3 patients with genetic confirmation were positive for EWS-FLI1 fusion or EWSR1 gene rearrangement. All patients received induction multiagent chemotherapy and surgical resection and 2 patients received adjuvant radiotherapy. Total (grade IV) or nearly total (grade III) tumor necrosis in 3 of 5 patients (60%) assessed for histologic response to chemotherapy indicated intense sensitivity. All patients were alive and free of disease, with no history of local recurrence, at a median follow-up period of 6.5 years.

CONCLUSION

Patients with primary Ewing sarcoma of the jaw have a good prognosis and metastasis is an uncommon occurrence at initial presentation.