Fibromatosis with aggressive demeanor: Benign impersonator of malignancy

 

 Permissions and Reprints

Abstract

Fibromatosis or desmoid fibromatosis is a rare benign neoplasm and develops commonly in the abdominal wall, abdominal cavity, or extra-abdominal sites. The mainstay of treatment is surgery. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are preferred in cases of inoperable/relapse or a multifocal disease. Hereby, we report a case of fibromatosis arising in the left popliteal fossa, proven by histopathology and immunohistochemistry. Local excision of the mass was performed. The patient was asymptomatic for 6 months, after which she complained of difficulty in walking. Clinical evaluation elicited recurrence in the surgical bed. In spite of the surgical excision with tumor-free margins, recurrence was seen within a span of 6 months. ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) was done to rule out multifocal disease and to define the extent of relapse. Although magnetic resonance imaging provides an excellent soft-tissue resolution to delineate the disease,¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT is an important and supplementary tool which aids in the management of fibromatosis.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Publication History

Received: 20 August 2020

Accepted: 23 August 2020

Article published online:
30 March 2022

© 2021. Sociedade Brasileira de Neurocirurgia. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
A-12, 2nd Floor, Sector 2, Noida-201301 UP, India

• References

• 1 Gourgiotis S, Gemenetzis G, Villias C. Pancreatic desmoid tumour: Extremely rare presentation in an elderly patient. Hell J Surg 2014;86:378-81
• 2 Liu Q, Fang L, Li B. Desmoid fibromatosis in the foot: A case report and literature review. Medicine (Baltimore) 2018;97:e13109.
• 3 Basu S, Nair N, Banavali S. Uptake characteristics of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in deep fibromatosis and abdominal desmoids: Potential clinical role of FDG-PET in the management. Br J Radiol 2007;80:750-6.
• 4 Duan M, Xing H, Wang K, Niu C, Jiang C, Zhang L, et al. Large and aggressive fibromatosis in the axilla: A rare case report and review of the literature. Onco Targets Ther 2018;11:3179-84.
• 5 Alshammari A, Ashkanani R, Alabsi S, Ghanem M.. Gardner syndrome with extra and intra-abdominal desmoid tumors and adrenal involvement: PET/CT findings. Case Rep Mol Imaging Radionucl Ther 2015;24 Suppl 1:38-41.
• 6 Braschi-Amirfarzan M, Keraliya AR, Krajewski KM, Tirumani SH, Shinagare AB, Hornick JL, et al. Role of imaging in management of desmoid-type fibromatosis: A primer for radiologists. Radiographics 2016;36:767-82.
• 7 Garg P, Chufal SS, Gupta N, Pant P, Thapliyal NC. Multicentric aggressive mammary fibromatosis with cytological features and review of literature. J Clin Diagn Res 2014;8:FD01-3.
• 8 Souza FF, Fennessy FM, Yang Q, van den Abbeele AD. Case report. PET/CT appearance of desmoid tumour of the chest wall. Br J Radiol 2010;83:e39-42.