INTRAABDOMINAL DESMOPLASTIC SMALL ROUND-CELL TUMOR

A rarely encountered but distinctive type of aggressive malignant tumo r of childhood and adolescence has been recently described as occurrin g predominantly or exclusively intra-abdominally. It is characterized by a generally diffuse pattern of growth of small cells with hyperchro matic nuclei, scanty cytoplasm, patchy epithelial differentiation, imm unohistochemical co-expression of keratin and desmin intermediate fila ments and a focal but pronounced desmoplastic stromal component. It is regarded as yet another variant in the group of small round cell tumo rs (SRCT) of infancy and childhood. This case report of a mass in the greater omentum of a 15 yr-old girl adds to the 33 cases already descr ibed in the English literature.