Comparison of digital and extradigital glomus tumors

INTRODUCTION: Glomus tumors(GT) are the rare neoplasms of soft tissue originated from mesenchymal origin. GT can be seen in throughout the body, finger pulp and subungual location are seen in ¾ of cases. In this study, we aimed to compare the clinical, radiologic and histopathological features of finger localized GT and GTs located outside the fingers.
METHODS: The diagnosis of GT was searched from the database of Adana Seyhan State hospital. Thirty-six patients with finger localized GT as group 1 and twenty patients with extra-digital GT as group 2 were included in the study. The groups were evaluated and compared with regards to the demographic characteristics, clinical findings, tumor size, the results of immunohistochemical analysis, the surgical margin status, clinical follow-up results and recurrences.
RESULTS: 56 patients were diagnosed with GT. The mean age of patients was 42 (±17), the mean follow-up time was 44 months (±24). The number of patients with pulp, subungal and distal finger localized GT was 36 (group1) and the number of patients with extradigital tumor was 20 (Group 2). The mean tumoral size was measured as 6 mm (±4.2). The results of αSMA, MSA, vimentin and calponin positivity in immunohistochemical analysis were found to be similar between groups.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The finger localized tumors are diagnosed correctly with higher percentage clinically. The extradigital GT reaches higher size and usually misdiagnosed. The immunohistochemical staining for differentiating the malignant tumors seems non-beneficial. It is thought that giving attention to have negative surgical margin in digital GTs prevent the recurrences.