Alveolar soft-part sarcoma of the cheek: report of a case with a review ofthe literature

An alveolar soft-part sarcoma (ASPS) occurring in the cheek is described, w ith a review of the literature. The subject was a 25-year-old woman who pre sented with a large swelling in the left cheek. The lesion, initially diagn osed as a benign tumor on radiographic and computed tomographic examination s, was surgically excised. Histopathological examination of the mass reveal ed a nest-like or organoid cellular arrangement as confirmed by three-dimen sional computer graphic reconstruction. The cytoplasm of the large polygona l tumor cells contained abundant diastase-resistant, PAS-positive inclusion s, ultrastructurally confirmed to be crystalloid materials. The tumor cells were immunoreactive For anti-myoglobin, sarcomeric actin, and neuron-speci fic enolase antibodies, suggesting a myogenic origin.