PRIMARY ALVEOLAR SOFT PART SARCOMA OF THE TONGUE OF AN ELDERLY MAN - A CASE-REPORT AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

A 64-year-old black man had a primary alveolar soft part sarcoma of th e tongue. It is unusual for this rare tumor to develop in this site in the elderly age group. The patient survived nearly 3 years with disea se. When the patient expired, a complete autopsy was performed. The bi opsy material of the primary tumor showed characteristic light microsc opic appearance, intracellular periodic acid-Schiff positive inclusion s after diastase reaction, and electron microscopic presence of crysta ls. Immunohistochemistry for neuron-specific enolase was positive. The autopsy confirmed widespread visceral and lymphatic metastases. The a typical features of this case, including the site of the primary lesio n, age of the patient at diagnosis, immunohistochemistry of the tumor, and natural history of this neoplasm, suggest that alveolar soft part sarcoma may behave differently when arising in an extraskeletal site, and could possibly have a different histogenesis from the typical alv eolar soft part sarcoma found in a younger population.