Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Dec 18, 2016; 7(12): 843-846
Published online Dec 18, 2016. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v7.i12.843
Glomus tumors of the fingers: Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor
Sittisak Honsawek, Pravit Kitidumrongsook, Pobe Luangjarmekorn, Kawee Pataradool, Voranuch Thanakit, Adisorn Patradul
Sittisak Honsawek, Pravit Kitidumrongsook, Pobe Luangjarmekorn, Kawee Pataradool, Adisorn Patradul, Vinai Parkpian Orthopaedic Research Center, Department of Orthopaedics, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thai Red Cross SocietyBangkok 10330, Thailand
Sittisak Honsawek, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Voranuch Thanakit, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Author contributions: The case was diagnosed by Kitidumrongsook P, Pataradool K, Patradul A; the manuscript was written by Honsawek S, Kitidumrongsook P, Luangjarmekorn P, Pataradool K, Thanakit V, Patradul A; final editing was done by Honsawek S.
Institutional review board statement: N/A.
Informed consent statement: N/A.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors have no conflicts of interests to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Sittisak Honsawek, MD, PhD, Department of Biochemistry and Orthopaedics, Vinai Parkpian Orthopaedic Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University and King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thai Red Cross Society, Rama IV road, Patumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. sittisak.h@chula.ac.th
Telephone: +66-2-2564482 Fax: +66-2-2564482
Received: May 10, 2016
Peer-review started: May 12, 2016
First decision: June 4, 2016
Revised: August 27, 2016
Accepted: September 21, 2016
Article in press: September 23, 2016
Published online: December 18, 2016
Abstract

Glomus tumors are uncommon, benign, small neurovascular neoplasms derived from glomus bodies in the reticular dermis. Glomus bodies are found throughout the body to regulate body temperature and skin circulation; however, they are concentrated in the fingers and the sole of the foot. The typical presentation is a solitary nodule in the subungual or periungual area of the distal phalanx. The primary treatment of choice is surgical removal. We investigated expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) using immunohistochemistry in glomus tumors of the fingers. All five glomus tumor samples were positive for VEGF expression. VEGF immunoreactivity was largely localized to the cytoplasm of tumor cells, suggesting a contribution of VEGF to the vascularization of glomus tumors.

Keywords: Glomus tumors, Fingers, Vascular endothelial growth factor

Core tip: Glomus tumors are uncommon, benign, small neurovascular neoplasms derived from glomus bodies in the reticular dermis. The role of vascular endothelial growth factor has never been investigated in glomus tumors of the fingers. This case report demonstrated high vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in the glomus tumors of the fingers, suggesting a contribution of VEGF to the vascularization of glomus tumors.