2026 DTRF "Together We Will" Weekend registration is OPEN. - Save your spot today!

The Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation

April 2023

Sinonasal Myxoma: A Distinct Entity or a Myxoid Variant of Desmoid Fibromatosis?

Author Information

Velez Torres JM (1), Mata DA (2), Briski LM (3), Green DC (4), Cloutier JM (4), Kerr DA (4), Montgomery EA (3), Rosenberg AE (3).

(1) Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Miami Hospital, and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA. Electronic address: jveleztorres@med.miami.edu, (2) Foundation Medicine, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA, (3) Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Miami Hospital, and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA, (4) Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA, and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.

Publication

Mod Pathol

Summary

Sinonasal myxoma (SNM) is a rare benign mesenchymal tumor that arises in the sinonasal cavity or maxilla and almost exclusively affects young children. Currently, it is considered a specific entity, but its molecular characteristics have not been reported. Lesions diagnosed as SNM and odontogenic myxoma/fibromyxoma (OM/OFM) were identified from the participating institutions, and the clinicopathologic features were recorded. Immunohistochemistry for β-catenin was performed on all cases with available tissue. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was performed on all SNM cases. Five patients with SNM were identified, including 3 boys and 2 girls with an age range of 20-36 months (mean: 26 months). The tumors were well-defined, centered in the maxillary sinus, surrounded by a rim of woven bone, and composed of a moderately cellular proliferation of spindle cells oriented in intersecting fascicles in a variably myxocollagenous stroma that contained extravasated erythrocytes. Histologically, the tumors resembled myxoid desmoid fibromatosis. Three tested cases showed nuclear expression of β-catenin. In 3 tumors, NGS revealed intragenic deletions of APC exons 5-6, 9 and 15, or 16, respectively, with concurrent loss of the other wild-type copy of APC, predicted to result in biallelic inactivation. The deletions were identical to those that occur in desmoid fibromatosis, and copy-number analysis raised the possibility that they were germline. In addition, one case showed possible deletion of APC exons 12-14, and another case exhibited a CTNNB1 p.S33C mutation. Ten patients with OM/OFM were identified, including 4 women and 6 men (mean age: 42 years). Seven tumors involved the mandible, and 3 the maxilla. Histologically, the tumors differed from SNM, and all cases lacked nuclear expression of β-catenin. These findings suggest that SNM represents a myxoid variant of desmoid fibromatosis that often arises in the maxilla. Because the APC alterations might be germline, genetic testing of the affected patients should be considered.

View Abstract