Granular cell tumour

Last revised by Henry Knipe on 13 Oct 2022

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Weerakkody Y, Knipe H, Fortin F, et al. Granular cell tumour. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 19 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-69229

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-69229

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/69229

rID:

69229

Article created:

3 Jul 2019, Yuranga Weerakkody ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Yuranga Weerakkody had no recorded disclosures.

View Yuranga Weerakkody's current disclosures

Last revised:

13 Oct 2022, Henry Knipe ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Henry Knipe had the following disclosures:

Radiopaedia Events Pty Ltd, Speaker fees (past)
Integral Diagnostics, Shareholder (ongoing)
Micro-X Ltd, Shareholder (ongoing)

These were assessed during peer review and were determined to not be relevant to the changes that were made.

View Henry Knipe's current disclosures

Revisions:

8 times, by 6 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Breast, Central Nervous System, Head & Neck, Musculoskeletal

Tags:

granular cell tumour, neural, soft tissue tumour, cases

Synonyms:

Granular cell tumours (GrCTs)
Granular cell tumour (GrCT)
Granular cell tumor
Granular cell tumors
Granular cell tumour (general)
Granular cell myoblastoma
Abrikossoff Tumor

Granular cell tumours are uncommon soft tissue tumours with the vast majority being benign (approximately 0.5-2.0% have been reported as malignant).

Pathology

Granular cell tumours have been reported in all organ systems, but most prominently are found in these sites ^2,5:

breast (granular cell tumour of the breast)
neurohypophysis (granular cell tumour of the pituitary)
extremities
skin
tongue
gastrointestinal tract (oesophagus, colon, stomach)
respiratory tract
soft palate

Microscopic appearance

Histologically, these tumours have a characteristic appearance. They are comprised of polygonal cells with bland nuclei and abundant eosinophilic granular cytoplasm. They are thought to be derived from neural tissue, as they stain positively for S-100 and neurone-specific enolase.

They are often classified as benign or malignant using the Fanburg-Smith criteria (especially for soft tissue lesions) ^3,4,5. These histologic criteria include spindled cells, increased mitoses, necrosis, high nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio, nuclear pleomorphism, and prominent nucleoli. Lesions with 3 or more of these features are designated as malignant, 1 or 2 as atypical, and 0 as benign.

Treatment and prognosis

Although benign granular cell tumours have an excellent prognosis following wide local surgical excision to negative margins, malignant granular cell tumours portend dismal prognoses, as they both recur and metastasise often. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy have not yet proven helpful in treating malignant granular cell tumours ⁵.