Background: Nodular fasciitis rarely affects children. To date, apart from isolated cases, only two series comprising respectively 15 and six children have been reported.
Patients and methods: We carried out a retrospective study of the clinical and pathological aspects of 10 cases of nodular fasciitis involving children under 15 years of age diagnosed at the pathology laboratory of the Necker Children's Hospital (Paris, France) between 1992 and 2006.
Results: In comparison with previously reported data, our study highlights four new factors: (1) nodular fasciitis affected girls more often than boys; (2) it occurred predominantly on the trunk; (3) follow-up showed a high recurrence rate (22%) after surgical removal; (4) immunohistochemical analysis revealed a high level of expression of p53 by tumour cells; this was much higher than in adults.
Discussion: The high expression of p53 in nodular fasciitis, which has never been described in children, seems to point towards its preneoplastic rather than reactive nature.