Abstract:

Objective: Granular cell tumors (GCTs) are rare, usually benign soft tissue tumors seen in various localizations, most commonly detected in the head and neck region. Although there are large case series in the literature on GCT, case series specific to the head and neck region are limited. In our study, we aimed to evaluate our cases diagnosed as GCT in head-neck localization, together with their clinical and pathological findings and to emphasize that GCTs should be included in the differential diagnosis of head and neck tumors. Material and Methods: The cases who were diagnosed with GCT in head-neck localization in Uludağ University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pathology between 2007-2019 were discussed. Ten of 32 cases diagnosed as GCT were localized in the head and neck region. The data of the cases were analyzed by scanning the patient files, pathology reports and the Hematoxylin & Eosin stained preparations were removed from the pathology archive. S-100, CD68, Ki67 immunohistochemical stains and Periodic Acid Shift (PAS) stain were applied to all cases. Results: GCT, seen in various localizations, but; they are the most common tumors detected in the head and neck region. The mean age of the 10 cases we detected in the head and neck region was 34.2, and most of them were female (70%). Symptoms varied according to localization. The macroscopic and microscopic properties of the excision materials of the cases were evaluated. The mean tumor diameter was 2.44 cm. While morphologically benign features were observed in 9 cases, malignancy criteria were observed in 1 case. Mitotic activity was in the range of 0-3 in all cases and the mean was 0.2. S-100 (100%) positivity was detected in 10 and CD68 positivity was detected in 6 (60%) cases. The Ki67 proliferative index was found to be the highest 15% and the lowest 0.1%, with an average of 3.31%. PAS was positive in 8 (80%) cases. The follow-up period of our cases was 3-14 years. While no recurrence was observed in 9 cases diagnosed with benign GCT, 1 case diagnosed with malignant GCT relapsed 5 months after the diagnosis. Conclusion: GCTs are tumors that should be kept in mind in the differential diagnosis of the head and neck region, and it is important to support them with morphological and IHC markers and to determine the malignancy potential. In our study, attention was drawn to this entity, where case series are rare, and the experiences of our center were shared.

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