calcifying fibrous tumor ( cft ) is a rare , benign fibrous lesion , usually affecting children and young adults , and originally described as childhood fibrous tumor with psammoma bodies . cft is composed of hyalinized fibrous tissue with interspersed bland fibroblastic spindled cells , scattered psammomatous , and/or dystrophic calcifications , and variably prominent mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate . cfts show a predilection for the soft tissue and the abdominal cavity . however , cft of the stomach is very rare [ 2 - 5 ] . herein , we present a rare case of gastric cft , with a review of the literature and differential diagnosis . a 59-year - old man was admitted to chonbuk national university hospital for the evaluation of an asymptomatic gastric lesion that had been detected incidentally 1 month earlier . physical examination of the abdomen was unremarkable and laboratory findings , including tumor markers , were found within normal limit . the patient underwent an endoscopic evaluation , which revealed a polypoid submucosal mass , with erythematous mucosa , at the greater curvature of the gastric fundus ( fig . contrast - enhanced computed tomography scan revealed a well - circumscribed , non - enhanced , and homogeneous round mass , at the great curvature of the gastric fundus ( fig . surgery was determined as the best treatment option , and the patient underwent laparoscopic wedge resection of the gastric fundus . cut - sections revealed that it was a relatively well - defined tumor , measuring 3.9  2.7 cm , and located in the proper muscle , with extension to the subserosa . microscopically , the tumor was well - circumscribed , but not encapsulated , and was surrounded by a peripheral cuff of lymphoid aggregates ( fig . the tumor showed characteristic hypocellular sclerosis , with wavy , vaguely storiform coarse collagen , and either scattered or patchy mononuclear inflammatory infiltrates , composed of plasma cells , lymphocytes and mast cells . small nodular lymphoid aggregates were common , and usually located at the periphery of the tumor . these cells had ovoid , vesicular nuclei with fine chromatin , and did not show any cellular atypia or mitotic activity ( fig . 2c ) . 2e ) , cd34 , platelet - derived growth factor receptor - alpha , s100 , smooth muscle actin ( sma ) ( fig . two months after the operation , the patient remained in good condition , with no signs or symptoms of tumor recurrence . cfts are rare , benign lesions consisting of well circumscribed , un - encapsulated , paucicellular , hyalinized fibrosclerotic tissue , with a variable inflammatory infiltrate , consisting of lymphocytes and plasma cells . cfts show a predilection for the soft tissue and the abdominal cavity , especially subserosal location involving either the pleura or the visceral peritoneum . however , intra - abdominal cft occurring as an intrinsic , visceral lesion is rare . in addition , it has been shown that gastric cfts are different from their soft tissue counterpart in their smaller tumor size , higher mean age at presentation and no tendency for local recurrence . these findings suggest different pathogenic pathways between gastric cfts and their soft tissue counterpart , regardless of morphologic similarity . cft is thought to represent a true neoplasm , with a tendency for nondestructive local recurrence , rather than a reactive process resulting from abnormal tissue healing . in the literature , gastric cfts have been documented no predominance of both sex in occurrence , with a mean age of 52.5 years [ 2 - 5 ] . mean age was slightly higher for women than for men ( i.e. , 55.6 years vs. 49.5 years ) . eight tumors were originated in the body of the stomach , 2 in the lesser curvature , 1 in the antrum , 1 in the antrum junction , and 2 in unspecified gastric sites . none of the 9 patients with mean follow - up of 51 months developed recurrence . the clinical features of the present case are somewhat different from the previous cases , in that the age of the patient was older ( 59 years ) than the reported mean age of male patients . in addition , the tumor size was larger ( 3.9 cm ) than the reported mean size and located in the greater curvature of the fundus . the differential diagnosis of gastric cft includes gastrointestinal stromal tumor ( gist ) , inflammatory fibroid polyp ( ifp ) , schwannoma , sclerosing leiomyoma , inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor ( imt ) and plexiform fibromyxoma . gastric gists are frequently hyalinized , with dystrophic calcifications in approximately 50% of cases . however , psammomatous calcifications and lymphoplasmacytic infiltrates are not features of regressing gist . in addition , in sclerosing gist , immunoreactivity for cd117 and cd34 is helpful in differentiation . unlike gastric cfts , gastric ifps are located mostly in the antrum , are submucosally - based lesions with eosinophil - dominant inflammatory cells , higher cellularity and onion - skin pattern of the stromal cell arrangement . sclerosing leiomyoma may also reveal residual smooth muscle tumor cells , which are immunoreactive for both sma and desmin . imts reveal infiltrative growth of either fibroblasts or myofibroblasts , which are immunoreactive for both sma and alk . plexiform fibromyxomas are uniformly larger ( > 5 cm ) tumors of the antrum , with prominent capillary network , fibromyxoid stroma , high cellularity and a common expression of sma . in general , gastric cfts are under - recognized because they are unfamiliar with the surgeons and pathologists and because their small size , bland looking histology and benign course attract less attention from the clinicians . awareness of the characteristic morphology of gastric cfts will help to distinguish them from other gastric sclerosing stromal tumors .
calcifying fibrous tumor ( cft ) is a rare , benign mesenchymal tumor usually affecting children and young adults , and it shows a predilection for the soft tissue and the abdominal cavity . 
 intrinsic visceral cft is extremely rare and we present herein the case of a 59-year - old man with an asymptomatic gastric lesion , incidentally detected 1 month before this presentation . thus , gastric endoscopy revealed a polypoid submucosal mass in the fundus , covered by an erythematous mucosa . 
 the polypoid mass was a 3.9  2.7 cm - sized well - defined tumor located in the proper muscle , with extension to the subserosa . 
 the tumor showed characteristic hypocellular sclerosis with coarse collagen , mononuclear inflammatory infiltrates , sparse fibroblastic spindle cells and occasional , psammomatous or dystrophic calcifications . 
 immunohistochemically , the spindle cells were negative for cd117 , cd34 , platelet - derived growth factor receptor - alpha , s100 , smooth muscle actin , desmin and anaplastic lymphoma kinase .