We report a case of a 13-year-old girl with soft tissue sarcoma of the hand,
which showed muscle and neuroectodermal immunophenotypes. Molecular studies were
performed on RNA collected from fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology and
peripheral blood samples by nested reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain
reaction (RT-PCR) and Southern blot analysis. This biphenotypic tumor showed
simultaneous expression of EWS-FLI1 and PAX3-FKHR transcripts, specific of Ewing
family tumors and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, respectively. Although childhood
sarcomas with simultaneous muscle and neural differentiation have been described
to have EWS-FLI1 transcripts, there are no reports of tumors with both
transcripts. Cytological specimens are a good source of RNA for molecular
studie
