ATYPICAL AND MALIGNANT LIPOMATOUS LESIONS OF THE HEAD AND NECK

Although liposarcoma is the second most common soft-tissue sarcoma in adults, the incidence of liposarcoma of the head and neck is low. Ther e are only 83 reported cases of head and neck liposarcoma. We report f our cases of atypical and malignant lipomatous lesions of the head and neck and discuss their histologic classification and treatment implic ations. The histologic nature of liposarcoma is correlated clinically with treatment outcome. Recently, many authors have adopted the term a typical lipoma to describe well-differentiated lipomatous lesions in s uperficial extremity locations because of their tendency toward local recurrence only, without metastases or patient mortality. Although we accept the classification atypical lipoma for superficial, well-differ entiated lesions, we believe that histologically similar lesions in no nsuperficial locations in the head and neck are best designated ''well -differentiated liposarcoma.''