Extract
The term lipoblastoma was first used by Jaffé in
19261 to refer to a
tumor of immature fat cells. It was not consistently applied to the benign
embryonal adipose tumors that now bear its name until Chung and Enzinger
established the initial morphological criteria for its diagnosis in
19732. In doing so,
they expanded on the descriptions provided by Vellios et al. in
19583 and by Shear
in 19674 in their
reports on the diffuse form of the tumor, called lipoblastomatosis. Despite
their infrequent occurrence in the overall population and their rare
discussion in the literature, lipoblastoma and lipoblastomatosis represent
>15% of all benign soft-tissue neoplasms that present in the extremities of
children who are five years of age or
less5. The
typical—almost exclusive—presentation of lipoblastoma as described
in the literature is that of a painless soft-tissue mass, with or without
progressive enlargement and with or without mass-effect symptoms when located
near vital structures.