Esophageal rhabdomyosarcoma: report of a case diagnosed by imprint cytology.

Background Primary esophageal rbabdamyosarcoma (PER) is a very rare neoplasm with only 15 cases reported in the literature. Of those, only 1 case underwent a preoperative cytologic evaluation. We report a case of PER with diagnosis by imprint cytology. Case A 55-year-old woman presented with dysphagia of 2 months' duration associated with fatigue and weight loss. Clinical and diagnostic imaging investigations revealed a large, submucosal mass lesion located in the lower part of the esophagus. A bite biopsy of the esophageal mass was performed under esophagoscopy. Two imprint smears were made from the biopsied tissue fragment and stained with the May-Griinwald-Giemsa method. The smears revealed abundant, pleomorphic, malignant cells with basophilic cytoplasm. Some spindle-shaped cancer cells showed intracytoplasmic cross-striations, indicating a pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma, as confirmed by histologic and immunobistochemical studies of the biopsied tumor tissue and resected tumor. Conclusion The presence of pleomorphic malignant cells with intracytoplasmic cross striations is a characteristic feature of pleomorphic rbabdomyosarcoma.