Utility of Desmin in Morphological Diagnosis of Rhabdomyosarcoma

AimsTo study the utility of desmin and vimentin in diagnosis and classification of different types of rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS) and importance of desmin as a specific marker for diagnosis of RMS. Settings and Design Retrospective study of 25 case were carried out at V. S. General Hospital and the data were collected from Nov.1994 to Nov.1999 from Cancer Research Institute, Ahmedabad (India). Methods and Material Patients of all age groups and both gneders were included in this study. In all the 25 cases, material was received in the form of incisional or excisional biopsies. Formalin fixed paraffin embedded blocks were prepared and stained by routine haematoxyllin and eosin stain. Immunohistochemistry was performed with desmin and vimentin for the final confirmation of the diagnosis. Results Out of total 25 studied cases, 18 cases were of embryonal type RMS, 4 cases were of alveolar type RMS, 2 cases were of pleomorphic RMS and 1 case was of botryoid variety of RMS. Conclusions Embryonal RMS is the most common type of RMS (18 cases out of 25) and desmin was the specific and important marker for confirmation of diagnosis.