Twenty-nine tumors (from 26 patients, including two with recurrent disease) diagnosed as solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) of the pleura (n = 23), mediastinum (n = 4), abdominal cavity (n = 1), and parotid gland (n = 1) were studied immunohistochemically. Three histologically malignant tumors showed areas of high cellularity and mitotic activity (more than 4 mitoses/10 high-power fields) with features resembling malignant fibrous histiocytoma, malignant hemangiopericytoma, or fibrosarcoma, together with areas typical of benign solitary fibrous tumor. Formaldehyde-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues and avidin-biotin-complex immunostaining were used. All of the tumors showed vimentin positivity and did not stain for cytokeratin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, or muscle cell markers, except for focal desmin reactivity in seven tumors, mostly seen in frozen sections, and focal keratin reactivity in one histologically malignant tumor. The neoplastic cells were positive for CD34 and negative for CD31; these patterns also were seen in the three histologically malignant cases. In nine of the cases acetone-fixed frozen sections showed variable focal positivity for neurofilament proteins of 68 kd. We conclude that SFT is a neoplasm of fibroblasts/primitive mesenchymal cells with features of multidirectional differentiation. We also report the finding of a novel site for SFT, the parotid gland.