Malignant Glomus Tumour: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

In many reported malignant cases, the histology of the tumour cells suggested that they were malignant, yet the clinical course has been benign. Carefully reviewing the literature, it seems that actually we have enough histological criteria to identify the cases with biological adverse outcome. Those unfortunate cases behave as high grade sarcomas and therefore may deserve an aggressive therapeutic treatment.

Primary pulmonary glomangioma

“…Most of the glomus tumors are benign but rare cases of glomus tumors that demonstrate aggressive or malignant clinical and histological features have also been reported. [3,[5][6][7] Folpe et al [7] analyzed 52 unusual glomus tumors and suggested a classification as follows: malignant glomus tumor (glomangiosarcoma), glomus tumor of uncertain malignant potential, symplastic glomus tumor, and glomangiomatosis. They proposed that deep tumor location and size larger than 2 cm, or presence of atypical mitotic figures, or moderate to high grade nuclear atypia, and ≥5 mitotic figures/50 high-power fields should be considered as criteria for malignant glomus tumor.…”

Glomus tumour of the elbow: a case of mistaken identity

“…An exceptionally rare phenomenon, malignant transformation after recurrence or dedifferentiation of a benign glomus tumor, has been described [1,9]. Studies have described metastasis to regional lymph nodes and lungs [10,11].…”

Unusual Presentation of Glomus Tumor in a Child

“…They are mostly located in the subungual region but may occur less frequently at extra digital sites. Although generally benign, glomus tumors can also exhibit malignant and metastatic potential in rare cases [3]. These lesions are managed by surgical excision.…”