Diagnostic dilemmas in soft tissue tumors of the head and neck

Classifying soft tissue tumors of the head and neck is often difficult for both surgeon and pathologist because of the potential similarities in appearance of metastatic lesions, epithelial tumors, lymphomas, and inflammatory processes. This paper discusses four unusual soft tissue tumors of the head and neck: osteosarcoma of the mandible, biphasic synovial cell sarcoma of the hypopharynx, soft part sarcoma of the maxillary sinus/alveolus, and adult rhabdomyoma of the larynx. Precise diagnosis of these lesions requires adequate tissue sampling, immunocytochemical staining, and electron microscopy. The clinical and pathological features of these tumors, as well as a practical approach to the diagnosis, is presented.