ABSTRACT
Over the past several years, cytogenetic and molecular analyses have played a growing
adjunct role in the clinicopathological evaluation of soft tissue tumors. Recent technological
advances, especially in fluorescence in situ hybridization and polymerase chain reaction,
have enabled the analysis of frozen and paraffin-embedded tissue as well as fresh
tumor samples. Many characteristic genetic abnormalities have been identified that
are of diagnostic utility in the analysis of soft tissue tumors. Additionally, certain
genetic aberrations have been found to be of potential prognostic value. With the
abundance of useful tools that are available, molecular cytogenetic analyses are likely
to become an integral part of the analysis of soft tissue tumors. These analyses can
be performed readily using small amounts of tumor (e.g., from sonographically or computed
tomographic guided percutaneous biopsy specimens).
KEYWORDS
Soft tissue - classification - sarcoma - cytogenetics - chromosome translocations
- fluorescence in situ hybridization - polymerase chain reaction
