Diagnostic Pathology: Soft Tissue Tumors, 3rd Edition

By Matthew R. Lindberg, MD

ISBN: 9780323661102

Pub Date: 21 May 2019

Reviewed by: Kyle Perry, MD (Henry Ford Health Systems)

Description

Part of the Diagnostic Pathology series, this is the third edition of a book on soft tissue tumors. The previous edition was published in 2015.

Purpose

As with the previous editions, the aim of this book is to describe the clinical, histological, immunohistochemical, cytogenetic, and molecular features of soft tissue mesenchymal neoplasms. Moreover, the intent is to reflect substantial advances in this subspecialty, including recently described entities, advances in molecular pathology, and staging guidelines.

Audience

Surgical pathologists with a subspecialty interest or emphasis in the diagnosis of soft tissue tumors, as well as pathologists in training (residents and fellows), will find this book to be of interest. Orthopedic oncologists, medical oncologists, radiologists, and radiation oncologists who are involved with the treatment of sarcomas also will find this book to be beneficial.

Features

A concise and practical overview of the handling of soft tissue tumors includes general guidelines for gross handling, sampling, and description of soft tissue masses. It discusses application of FNCLCC tumor grading and reflects the recent updates to the AJCC staging system. Following this, a section offers helpful tables summarizing appropriate immunohistochemical panels based on the general morphological architecture of the tumor (e.g. spindle cell, round cell, etc.). Then, the book presents specific histologic entities organized according to tumor differentiation (e.g. adipose, fibroblastic, smooth muscle, etc.). Similar to other books in this series, each entity section is presented in bullet-point outline format with subheadings addressing epidemiology, clinical presentation, gross findings, histology, immunohistochemistry, molecular findings, differential diagnosis, and clinical behavior. Multiple pages of high-quality and pertinent microphotographs typically follow these descriptions.

Assessment

This is an excellent resource for pathologists who are interested or involved in soft tissue pathology. It is comprehensive and essentially covers any mass forming mesenchymal cell proliferation. Furthermore, pathologists (and residents) who only occasionally encounter soft tissue tumors will appreciate the high-yield and practical advice on approaching these tumors in the gross room. Grading and staging of these tumors are nicely described and illustrated. Although the book principally organizes discussion of entities by differentiation (adipocytic, myogenic, fibroblastic), it also provides an amazingly comprehensive set of tables that enables pathologists to quickly form a differential diagnosis based on overall morphologic pattern (e.g. spindle cells, epithelioid cells, etc.), tumor cell features (nuclear grooves, prominent nucleoli, etc.), vascular pattern, background inflammatory cell pattern, patient age, or tumor location. Other tables nicely suggest immunohistochemical staining panels based on morphologic pattern. This resource (in addition to the multiple high-quality microphotographs) makes the book extremely convenient as a quick reference at the microscope. In short, it is highly instructive and a wonderful contribution to the subspecialty of soft tissue pathology. Readers who enjoy the outline format of the Diagnostic Pathology series will particularly appreciate its efficient organization.

Doody’s Review Service Weighted Numerical Score: 100 – 5 Stars!