Cytopathologic patterns of soft tissue tumor and associated factors in jimma university medical center, jimma, south west Ethiopia: a 3 year retrospective study

Abstract

Background: Soft tissue tumors constitute a large and heterogeneous group of neoplasm’s that arise from soft tissues that include fibrous (connective) tissue, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, blood and lymph vessels, and peripheral nervous system. Traditionally, tumors have been classified according to histogenetic features; however, histomorphologic, immunohistochemical, and experimental data suggest that most, if not all, sarcomas arise from primitive, multipotential mesenchymal cells. Objectives: this study is aimed at describing the cytopathologic pattern of soft tissue tumor and associated factors in Jimma university medical center from September 2018 to august 2021. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study design was applied for patients seen at JUMC pathology department with soft tissue tumor who presented with soft tissue swelling from September 2018 to August 2021. Data was collected using structured check lists from the patient’s FNAC report record in pathology department manually by cytopathology technicians working in the department. Data was entered into Epi data v.3.1. , cleared and exported to SPSS V.20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean was used for analysis. Finally result was presented using tables, figures and in narrative forms. Result: A total of 767 patients were diagnosed with soft tissue tumor over the last three years with benign to malignant ratio of 11:1 and sex ratio of Male to Female 1.02:1. The most commonly diagnosed soft tissue tumor was lipoma 334(43.55%) followed by spindle cell neoplasm 256(33.37%). The age at which soft tissue tumors commonly occur was between 40-59 year categories 262(34.1%). The malignant soft tissue tumor commonly occurs in <20 year age categories 23(35.9%). The most common site of soft tissue tumor is trunk wall 253(33%) followed by lower extremities 190(24.8%). From the benign soft tissue tumor the majority (87.4%) has size of ≤5cm and only (12.6%) has size of >5cm Conclusion: The diagnoses of benign soft tissue tumors are more frequent than malignant soft tissue tumor. In terms of age categories most benign soft tissue tumors occurs in 40-59 year (34.9%). The most common site for soft tissue tumors is trunk wall. The majority of benign soft tissue tumors have size ≤5cm while almost all malignant soft tissue tumor with size documentations have size >5cm.