A rare female genital tract tumor: Granular cell tumor of the vulva.

Aims: The granular cell tumor (GCT) was first described by Abrikosoff in 1926. The GCT is normally benign in behavior, but occasionally surprices with local aggresiveness and in two percent of the cases with distant dissemination. We illustrate a granular cell tumor of the vulva with pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia of the squamous epithelium.

Methods: We demonstrate a case of a 50 years old female with a 1 cm thick mass at the vulva. The sample was fixed in 4%-buffered formalin and was processed routinely. The section was stained with hematoxylin and eosin, peroid acid Schiff reaction (PAS) and immunohistochemistry using antibody angainst S100 and cytokeratin.

Results: In histological examination we could detect tumor cells with uniform central nuclei and abundant granular cytoplasm. The granula was PAS-positive. Immunoreactivity for S-100 protein was positive and negative for cytokeratin. In particular importance of the vulva is the tendency for the overlying spuamous epithelium to undergo pseudo-epitheliomatous hyperplasia and simulate a well differentiated squamous carcinoma like in this cases.

Conclusions: We present a case of a granular cell tumor of the vulva with pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia of the squamous epithelium mimking well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. The diagnosis of the granular cell tumor of the vulva was perfomed after resection and immunohistochemistry.