Course Map: Miscellaneous Tumors: Carcinosarcoma

Carcinosarcoma
In some centers they include in this category the type of lesion we described above as spindle cell carcinoma [102]. In our view, a carcinosarcoma is a tumor which contains a carcinoma and a specific type of sarcoma. The carcinoma may be urothelial, squamous or adenocarcinoma (or some combination of these) and the sarcoma will usually be osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma or rhabdomyosarcoma (or some combination of these). The carcinoma or the sarcoma may metastasize but extensive local spread is the common behavior. Another term for this lesion, used with diminishing frequency, is "malignant mixed mesodermal tumor".[79,83,90,121]
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	Figure 1: Carcinosarcoma. In the center is a chondrosarcoma. Just to the right is a transitional cell carcinoma.
	Figure 2: Carcinosarcoma. Most of this field shows an adenocarcinoma. An osteosarcoma occupies most of the lower right field.
	Figure 3: This shows a carcinoma at the lower left and on the right. In the center are some brightly eosinophilic cells typical of rhabdomyoblasts. In this carcinosarcoma, the sarcomatous element is rhabdomyosarcoma.
	Figure 4: Same field as figure 3. Positive desmin immunostain confirms that these are rhabdomyoblasts.