Primary Alveolar Soft-Part Sarcoma (ASPS) of the Prostate: Report of a Deceptive Case

Abstract

Alveolar soft-part sarcoma (ASPS) is a rare soft tissue tumor that primarily involves the extremities. We report a case of a 30-year-old never-smoker man who presented with hematuria, dysuria, and constipation at an outside hospital. He was diagnosed with and treated for multiple episodes of urinary tract infection. However, he continued to have voiding symptoms for which a cystoscopy was performed and revealed a bladder neck mass. He underwent transurethral resection of a bladder tumor and was diagnosed with muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma, nested variant, at an outside hospital. Subsequent to this diagnosis he transferred his care to our center. In-house imaging revealed a large vascular mass involving the prostate and pushing against the bladder base. Prostate needle biopsies were performed and revealed an epithelioid neoplasm with a nested growth pattern composed of cells with a moderate amount of eosinophilic cytoplasm, mildly pleomorphic nuclei, and occasional prominent nucleoli. Since the findings were not classic for urothelial carcinoma or for prostate cancer, we included a wider differential of poorly differentiated carcinoma, sarcoma, and paraganglioma. A wide panel of keratin stains was negative, ETS (erythroblast transformation-specific)-related gene highlighted an extensive vascular network and neuroendocrine stains were all negative. A transcription factor E3 fluorescent in-situ hybridization was positive and subsequently, an ASPSCR1 gene rearrangement was demonstrated. The outside hospital transurethral resection of bladder tumor was obtained for review and the tumor was morphologically similar to that seen on the in-house prostate needle biopsies. Based on the above findings a final diagnosis of primary ASPS of the prostate with involvement of the bladder was made. The patient was later diagnosed with bilateral lung metastases. He was treated with pazopanib, radiation therapy, and cystoprostatectomy and is symptom-free on a 15-month follow-up.