Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma of the Lip in an Adult with Clear Cell Features

After the diagnosis, head and neck computed tomography and positron emission tomography were performed and revealed no evidence of a primary tumor elsewhere or evidence of a mass in deeper soft tissue.Rhabdomyosarcoma with clear cell features has been rarely described in the English literature.12,13 The clear or vacuolated cytoplasm visible on light microscopy is due to lipid droplets or glycogen particles on electron microscopy.Tumors presenting as a dermal or subcutaneous nodule, which can show clear cytoplasm, are diverse and include balloon cell nevus, balloon cell melanoma, clear-cell sarcoma, Paget's disease, clear-cell basal cell carcinoma, clear-cell syringoid tumors, clear-cell hidradenoma/hidradenocarcinoma, trichilemmoma/trichilemmocarcinoma, sebaceous neoplasm, lipoma/liposarcoma, cutaneous metastasis from renal cell carcinoma and clear-cell dermatofibroma.14 Recently, a great advance in the ability to distinguish each of the subtypes of rhabdomyosarcoma has been demonstrated.11 In alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, reciprocal translocation of t(2;13) (q35;q14) and t(1;13)(p36;q14) and their associated fusions were identified.