2010 Volume 70 Issue 1 Pages 97-104
We report a rare case of primary synovial sarcoma of the lung. The patient was a 35-year-old male complaining of a bad cough, slight fever and back pain. Chest radiograph and computerized tomography scan showed an abnormal infiltrative shadow in the right upper lobe of the lung. Histologically, the tumor of a lung biopsy specimen showed a dense proliferation of short spindle cells. However, a specific diagnosis could not be made even with immunohistochemical examination because the spindle cells expressed no specific feature. We diagnosed a non-epithelial malignant tumor (spindle cell sarcoma) of the lung at the time. After radiation therapy, the tumor decreased to half the size. However, the tumor enlarged again after a few months. Subsequent radiation and chemotherapy had no effect, and the patient died after one year and nine months. From the tumor tissues at autopsy, we examined for the presence of SYT-SSX fusion gene transcripts by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Because this fusion gene is identified with synovial sarcoma. We were able to diagnose this case as primary synovial sarcoma of the lung.
