Abstract
Malignant fibrous histiocytoma is most frequent among the malignant non-epithelial tumors and commonly originates from the retroperitoneum and extremities.
The presented case is a female, aged 43 who had malignant fibrous histiocytoma originated from the right lower mediastinum, occupied right pleural cavity, infiltrated expansively into the right lung, the pericardium, the liver and disseminated into the peritoneum. She died in two months taking highly malignant course. Histologically, fibrous areas with storiform pattern and cellular areas with scattered multinucleated cells were admixed in the tumor.
Atypical histiocytoid cells were found in the effusion of the pleura, pericardium and peritoneum since 6 days before death. They were relatively small, round and oval and become larger and increased giant cells later. Phagocytosis were rarely seen. Inprint preparations at autopsy revealed many spindle-shaped fibrocyte like cells besides histiocytoid cells found in the effusion. They were not different from other kind of sarcoma cells except that chromatin of tumor cells were moderate, rim of the cytoplasma were lace-like “ ruffled ” and sometimes tailed. We were not able to find the report on the cytology of the effusion of malignant fibrous histiocytoma before.
