Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor of the stomach in an adult female - report of a rare case and review of the literature

Abstract

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor is an uncommon mesenchymal neoplasm presenting usually in children and young adults and reported in diverse locations including the lung, abdomen, retroperitoneum, pelvis, and trunk. Only a few cases involving the stomach have been reported, of which only 12 cases have been reported previously in adults. A 35-year-old female presented with complaints of abdominal pain, fever, vomiting, and loss of appetite for one month. Radiologically, a mass was seen along the greater curvature of the stomach, and was excised. Grossly, a well-circumscribed transmural tumor was seen involving the stomach wall. Histology showed a spindle cell lesion with myxoid areas and interspersed inflammatory cell infiltrate, immunopositive for vimentin and smooth muscle actin, and negative for CD34, CD117 and anaplastic lymphoma kinase-1, confirming a diagnosis of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor. Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor forms a rare diagnosis in the stomach and is even rarer in adults. We report here an extremely rare case of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor involving the stomach wall in an adult, and discuss the differential diagnoses at this site.