Granular Cell Tumor Presenting as an Axillary Mass: Correlation Between Clinical, Radiologic, and Cytologic Findings

Abstract

A 39-year-old African American woman presented with a left axillary mass which had been present for 22 years and had increased in size for the past 2 years. Physical examination revealed a 2 cm mobile, nontender mass. The breast and the contralateral axilla were unremarkable. Both mammogram and ultrasonogram revealed a 2 cm irregular mass (Figs. 1,2). A fine needle aspiration biopsy was performed (Fig. 3). The cytologic findings and the intense staining with antibody to S-100 protein were consistent with a diagnosis of granular cell tumor (Fig. 4). The importance of correlation between clinical, radiologic, and cytologic findings is illustrated. Figure 1. A mammogram revealed a 2 cm spiculated mass with ill-defined margins in the axilla.

Multimodal ultrasonography findings of extramammary granular cell tumors: Two case reports

“…In addition we found that the thickness of the muscles at both ends of the mass on twodimensional ultrasound images were asymmetric in case one. Another case report showed that a GCT located in the axillary region presented as a hypoechoic mass with unclear boundaries and posterior acoustic shadowing on gray-scale ultrasonography (9,14). While we observed similar findings in case two of our study, the lesions in our case presented with a more twisted structure with an aspect ratio greater than one, whereas those of case six in the study by Aoyama et al presented as an uneven mass with smooth boundaries and acoustic shadowing (18), which may have been caused by internal fibrosis (19).…”