Malignant fibrous histiocytoma of jaws. A clinicopathologic study of 11 cases

Malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) of the jaws is a highly malignant tumor that recurs, metastasizes, and usually causes death despite aggressive surgical therapy. This clinicopathologic review looks at five patients with MFH of the maxilla and six with MFH of the mandible. Five male and six female patients ranged in age from 12 to 75 years (mean, 35.4 years). All patients had large lytic areas of bone destruction, often with soft tissue extension. Two cases were postirradiation sarcomas, one of the maxilla and the other of the mandible. All patients underwent surgery and eight patients received chemotherapy when disease recurred locally or metastasized. Seven patients had local recurrences 3 to 13 months following surgery, and six patients had distant metastases. Of the 11 patients, 7 died of their disease, 1 died of unknown causes, and another with extensive local disease was lost to follow-up after 1.7 years. Two patients with recurrent disease are alive at 18 and 27 months postoperatively.