Histiocytic sarcoma that mimicks benign histiocytosis

A 28-year-old man presented with a histiocytic sarcoma of a very uncommon origin, as it had developed for several years like a benign cutaneous histiocytosis resembling generalized eruptive histiocytoma before becoming acute, with nodal and massive pulmonary involvement. Despite various chemotherapies, the patient died within 8 months. Skin biopsies showed histiocytic proliferation in the dermis and node biopsies showed histiocytic proliferation with a sinusoidal pattern. Immunohistochemical analysis, performed on paraffin-embedded sections, demonstrated strong labeling of tumoral cells for CD68 and moderate labeling for CD3 and CD4. CD30 labeling was negative. S-100 protein was positive on a Langerhans' cell reactive subpopulation. Electron microscopy confirmed the histiocytic nature of malignant cells and showed cytoplasmic inclusions such as regularly laminated bodies, dense bodies and pleomorphic inclusions. No Birbeck granules were seen. A gene rearrangement study of T-cell receptor gamma and immunoglobulin heavy chain genes showed a germline configuration. Histiocytic sarcoma is an extremely rare true histiocytic malignancy, the existence of which has been recently debated since it has often been mistaken in the past for large cell lymphomas. Such a deceptive onset as benign cutaneous histiocytosis has not been described in the literature to our knowledge.