PURE ALVEOLAR RHABDOMYOSARCOMA OF THE CORPUS UTERI - DESCRIPTION OF ACASE WITH INCREASED SERUM LEVEL OF CA-125

We report a morphological and immunohistochemical study of a case of p ure alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma of the uterus in an 80-year-old woman. T he diagnostic clues were the characteristic ''alveolar'' pattern of gr owth, the evidence of cross-striations in strap or elongated cells wit h abundant eosinophilic cytoplasms, the presence of multinucleated cel ls with peripherally placed ''wreathlike'' nuclei, and the expression of muscular antigens by the tumor cells. A thorough sampling of the tu mor excluded areas of other types of heterologous or homologous sarcom as or the presence of coexisting adenoma or carcinoma. The other immun o-histochemical data showed a high proliferative rate as well as a hig h rate of p53 overexpression in the small poorly differentiated rhabdo myoblasts. Interestingly, the large differentiated rhabdomyoblasts exp ressed CA-125, the antigenic determinant of nonmucinous epithelial ova rian tumors. The clinical course was very aggressive: the patient died 5 months after surgery because of disease progression. The pertinent literature is discussed. (C) 1997 Academic Press.