CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gynecological Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1551607
Spindle Cell Epithelioma of the Vagina with Rare Morphology: A Case Report and Literature Review
Provisionally accepted- Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China
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Abstract: Spindle cell epithelioma of the vagina (SCEV) is a rare female genital tract neoplasm with a complex morphology and immunophenotype easily resulting in misdiagnosis. The tumor was primarily composed of spindle and epithelioid cells. In this case, there was no obvious epithelial component in the tumor parenchyma, and only epithelioid cells with rounded nuclei were observed, which were tightly mixed with the spindle cells. Here, we describe a unique case of vaginal spindle cell epithelioma in a 51-year-old woman. In this tumor, mucoid degeneration and the formation of vacuoles or microcysts with varying sizes without epithelial lining were observed, and only a few glandular structures were observed in the periphery of the tumor. Immunohistochemical staining showed diffuse positivity for AE1/AE3, CK7, and CD10 in both spindle and epithelioid cells, and ER, PR, P63, and P40 were diffusely expressed in the spindle cells, while expressed to varying extents in epithelioidl cells. CD34 was expressed focally in the spindle cells. No expression of Desmin, SMA, CD31, Caldesmon, TLE-1, WT-1, and SS18 was in the tumor, which could be differentiated from synovial sarcoma. Tumor cells were negative for S100 and positive for CD10 and BCL2 in their mesenchyme. There are conflicting reports on the tissue origin of SCEV, and the immunohistochemical staining of this case supports the hypothesis that SCEV originates from multipotent stem cells.
Keywords: spindle cell epithelioma of the vagina, Immunohistochemistry, Diagnostic pathology, Gynecological pathology, case report
Received: 26 Dec 2024; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tang, Xu, Yao, Yuan and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yu-gang Huang, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China
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