Background: Clear cell sarcoma (CCS) is a rare malignant soft tissue tumor with poor prognosis owing to metastasis and insensitive response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Methods: We first searched PubMed and Embase using the terms "clear cell sarcoma," "malignant melanoma of soft tissue," "head," and "neck." In the 15 articles selected for literature review, only 27% (4/15) of patients were diagnosed with primary CCS of the head. Pathologically, those tumors arose from either the scalp or the superficial temporal fascia, but none invaded the skull and brain. Next, the search was performed in the same database using the terms "clear cell sarcoma," "malignant melanoma of soft tissue," and "bone," and only 24 articles were selected.
Results: In the case reported here, a 36-year-old woman was found to have a palpable mass located at the left temporal-occipital region, and surgical finding confirmed the invasion into the skull and the brain. The diagnosis of primary CCS was made because of the detection of t(12;22)(q13;q12) in >50% of tumor cells by fluorescence in situ hybridization, and metastasis to the lymph nodes and lungs was discovered by postoperative positron emission tomography-computed tomography.
Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of primary central nervous system CCS. Primary CCS may involve the skull and should be one of the differential diagnoses for intra-extracranial communicating tumors. Further research on biological characteristics and molecular targeted therapy of CCS are needed to improve its poor prognosis.
Keywords: Brain invasion; Clear cell sarcoma (CCS); Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1(EWSR1); Intra-extracranial region.
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