Improving precision of resection by pre-surgery inspections with contrast-enhanced ultrasound for dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans

Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is a relatively uncommon malignant soft tissue tumor. Although metastasis is rare, it has significant topo-aggressive characteristics with a high recurrence rate. The common treatment of DFSP is surgical resection. This study reported a case of a 22 years old woman who presented DFSP with single irregular red plaque in the right occipital area. The plaque is about 2 cm x 2 cm in diameter with an irregular and unclear border. In order to minimize the range of resection area, the contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) was used to precisely identify the tumor affected area before the surgery treatment. The result shows that CEUS depicted clear structure of the tumor, which successfully helped surgeons to reduce the resection range from 3 cm to 2 cm in diameter. The tumor has been completely removed by one surgery operation only, and no relapse was found up to now. Pre-surgery CEUS inspection of DFSP could be an effective and economical method to minimize the patient's hurts in the surgical treatment of DFSP.