A rare case of liposarcoma in a young male located on the neck in region 6. Case report and literature review

Abstract

Liposarcoma is a common soft tissue tumor in adults, however, in the head and neck region liposarcomas represent only 2–9% of malignant mesenchymal tumors. The most common are liposarcomas of the subcutaneous tissue of the face, scalp, deep soft tissues of the neck, parapharyngeal and retropharyngeal space, and the aerodigestive tract (larynx, oral cavity and pharynx). Liposarcomas of the salivary and thyroid glands have also been described. Liposarcomas generally occur between the ages of 40 and 60, but our patient was only 32 years old when he was diagnosed with liposarcoma in the region 6 of the neck, which is also uncommon and has not been described in the available literature. Liposarcomas are malignant tumors which usually occur de novo. The patient from our case report was diagnosed with lipoma by means of ultrasonography and fine needle aspiration biopsy at the exact location of liposarcoma, and ultrasonographically followed in the period of three years. Because of the acceleration in the tumor growth and signs of volume compression, a possibility of the existence of malignant tumor of fat tissue origin was suspected. Because of the inconvenient tumor localisation and inability of securing wide resection margins, the tumor was resected with margins that were dictated by anatomical relations among the tumor and vital neurovascular structures of the lower neck and mediastinum. As the penetration of the tumor capsule by the tumor tissue was present in the definitive histopathological finding, adjuvant radiotherapy was applied in agreement with the oncologist.

Keywords

• liposarcoma – diagnosis
• pathology
• radiotherapy
• surgery; head and neck neoplasms – diagnosis
• surgery; radiotherapy