LIPOSARCOMA

Abstract

A survey of the literature indicates that liposarcoma is a neoplasm of extremely rare occurrence. Virchow 1 (1857) is credited with the first accurate histologic study of this tumor, and in 1939, Lingley 2 reported a case of liposarcoma which was noted as the seventy-second one to be recorded. Recently, however, there has arisen the impression that these figures do not represent a true estimate of the clinical frequency of liposarcoma. The extremely variable microscopic features shown by liposarcoma (stressed by Geschickter 3 and others) may have occasioned the classification of certain of these tumors as endothelial, carcinomatous or xanthomatous neoplasms. At times, liposarcoma has undoubtedly been mistakenly diagnosed as fibrosarcoma. From Jan. 1, 1931, to Jan. 1, 1941, approximately 16,000 patients with tumor were admitted to the Veterans Administration Facility, and from this group a diagnosis of liposarcoma was made in 9 instances. This seems to suggest a somewhat