Solitary fibrous tumor of the oral mucosa--morphological and immunohistochemical profile in the differential diagnosis with hemangiopericytoma.

The objective was to investigate two cases of solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) of oral mucosa, emphasizing the differential diagnosis with one case of oral hemangiopericytoma (HPC), in terms of their morphological and immunohistochemical features. Solitary fibrous tumors showed cellularity and collagenization varying from area to area, focal perivascular hyalinization, scattered giant nuclei cells and abundant mast cells throughout the tumor. The hemangiopericytoma case exhibited thin-walled and dilated vessels lined with flat endothelial cells, identified by "staghorn appearance". Tumoral cells of solitary fibrous tumor exhibited immunohistochemical positivity for CD34, as well as endothelial cells. The hemangiopericytoma was positive only in endothelial cells. In solitary fibrous tumor, alpha-smooth muscle actin, h-caldesmon and laminin stained the wall vessels. In hemangiopericytoma, on the other hand, the wall vessels were positive only for laminin, which staining was also observed in perivascular tumoral cells. The morphological and immunohistochemical differences observed allowed us to infer these lesions constitute distinct entities. Copyright 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd.