Case reports: acral myxoinflammatory fibroblastic sarcoma: a report of five cases and literature review.

During the past 2 years, we treated five patients with acral myxoinflammatory fibroblastic sarcoma at our institution. Four patients presented with a firm, painless mass in the hand that appeared over several months. One patient discovered a painless mass in his shoulder region. The five patients initially were diagnosed as having benign conditions and treated with intralesional or marginal excision by referring physicians, only to have the lesion reappear as sarcoma. Each patient was treated with wide resection of the tumor bed. Acral myxoinflammatory fibroblastic sarcoma is a rare, but increasingly recognized sarcoma of the distal extremities, which often is confused with benign lesions. Surgeons should be familiar with this tumor's clinical, radiographic, and histologic appearances as it has a high rate of recurrence and can metastasize.