Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 16, 2024; 12(26): 5983-5989
Published online Sep 16, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i26.5983
Sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma of the pancreas: A case report
Meng-Qing Sun, Li-Na Guo, Yan You, Yan-Yu Qiu, Xiao-Dong He, Xian-Lin Han
Meng-Qing Sun, Yan-Yu Qiu, Xiao-Dong He, Xian-Lin Han, Department of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China
Li-Na Guo, Yan You, Department of Pathology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China
Author contributions: Sun MQ is responsible for collecting case data, creating illustrations, and writing the manuscript; Guo LN and You Y are responsible for interpreting and analyzing the pathological results; Qiu YY is responsible for manuscript editing; He XD provides technical support and guidance for case management; Han XL provides the case, performs the surgery, and is fully responsible for case management throughout.
Supported by National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding, No. 2022-PUMCH-B-003; National Multidisciplinary Cooperative Diagnosis and Treatment Capacity Building Project for Major Diseases.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent for the treatment was obtained from the patients.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xian-Lin Han, MD, Professor, Department of General surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 1 Shuai Fu Yuan, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100730, China. hanxianlin@pumch.cn
Received: March 29, 2024
Revised: July 2, 2024
Accepted: July 10, 2024
Published online: September 16, 2024
Processing time: 116 Days and 4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

A sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma (SEF) is a rare malignant fibroblastic soft tissue tumor that rarely occurs in intra-abdominal organs. A case of a SEF in the pancreatic head is reported herein, including its clinical manifestations, preoperative imaging features, gross specimen and pathological findings.

CASE SUMMARY

A 33-year-old male patient was admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital in December 2023 due to a one-year history of intermittent upper abdominal pain and the discovery of a pancreatic mass. The patient underwent an enhanced computed tomography scan of the abdomen, which revealed a well-defined, round mass with clear borders and calcifications in the pancreatic head. The mass exhibited progressive, uneven mild enhancement, measuring approximately 6.6 cm × 6.3 cm. The patient underwent laparoscopic pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy. Postoperative pathological examination revealed that the lesion was consistent with a SEF. At the 3-month postoperative follow-up, the patient did not report any short-term complications, and there were no signs of tumor recurrence.

CONCLUSION

SEFs are rare malignant fibrous soft tissue tumors. SEFs rarely develop in the pancreas, and its preoperative diagnosis depends on imaging findings, with confirmation depending on pathological examination and immunohistochemistry. Currently, only four cases of pancreatic SEF have been reported in studies written in English. This case is the first reported case of a pancreatic SEF by a clinical physician.

Keywords: Sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma of the pancreas; Abdominal malignant fibroblastic soft tissue tumor; Abdominal enhanced computed tomography; Laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy; Case report

Core Tip: Sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma (SEF) is a rare malignant fibroblastic soft tissue tumor, which is extremely rare in intra-abdominal organs. This article reports a case of SEF in the pancreatic head, presenting its clinical manifestations, preoperative imaging, gross specimen and pathological findings.