الملخص

Objective: Histopathological and immunohistochemical examination of soft tissue tumors to assess the value of these techniques in verifying the primary diagnosis and their classification. Methods: A prospective study of 93 consecutive soft tissue biopsies that reached the department of histopathology, central labs, Dohuk, and application of immunohistochemical markers on 27 biopsies. Results: Out of 93 soft tissue tumors, 70 (75.2%) were benign with mean age 27.6 y. and 23 cases (24.8 %) were malignant with mean age 39.1 y.. Immunohistochemistery was performed in 27 cases; 21 (77.7%) cases of malignant tumors and 6 (22.3%) benign cases. The most common benign tumors were Lipoma, Haemangioma, Neurofibroma, while malignant muscle tumors (leiomyosarcoma and Rhabdomyosarcoma) and malignant round cell tumors (Ewing’s sarcoma/ PNET) were the major groups . Conclusion: High quality H and E stained section, remain the best method for establishing the primary diagnosis of soft tissue tumors, but immunohistochemical examination proved extremely helpful in sub classifying them, where 7 out of 9 cases of gastrointestinal tumors (GISTs) showed strong immunoreactivity with (c – kit proteins) CD117, CD34, while other (non GISTs) tumors were negative.