A scoring system combining clinical, radiological, and histopathological examinations for differential diagnosis between lipoma and atypical lipomatous tumor/well-differentiated liposarcoma

This study evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of clinical, radiological, and histopathological examinations for differential diagnosis between atypical lipomatous tumor (ALT)/well-differentiated liposarcoma (WDLS) and lipoma, and aimed to develop a new combined scoring system for the preoperative diagnosis of ALT/WDLS. Eighty-nine lipomas and 56 ALT/WDLS were included and their clinical characteristics, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings, histological findings by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining were investigated. Then, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed for the findings, and a combined scoring system consisted of predictive factors of ALT/WDLS was developed. The univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that tumor location (lower extremity), deep site, size (>11 cm), thick septa (>2 mm), enhancement of septa or nodular lesions, and lipoblasts were significantly different for the diagnosis of ALT/WDLS. We developed a combined scoring system based on the six predictive factors (total 0-16 points, the cutoff was 9 points). The area under the curve was 0.945, and sensitivity was 87.6% and specificity was 91.1% by the receiver operating characteristics curve. This combined scoring system does not require special equipment and reagents such as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and anyone can use it easily in many medical institutions with high diagnostic accuracy.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of various examinations for differential diagnosis between atypical lipomatous tumor/well-differentiated liposarcoma (ALT/WDLS) and lipoma, and developed a new combined scoring system for preoperative diagnosis. The scoring system based on six predictive factors achieved high diagnostic accuracy without requiring special equipment and reagents.