North Carolina Pathology Funeral Service Practice Exam 2025 – Complete Study Resource

The answer is indeed fibrosarcoma, as this term specifically refers to a malignant tumor that originates in the fibrous connective tissue of the body. These tumors arise from fibroblasts, which are cells responsible for synthesizing the extracellular matrix and collagen, essential components of connective tissue.

Fibrosarcomas typically form in the soft tissues of the body, and they can occur in various locations, including the limbs, chest, and abdomen. The cancerous nature of fibrosarcoma is established by its ability to invade surrounding tissues and metastasize to other parts of the body, distinguishing it from benign tumors, which do not exhibit such aggressive behavior.

To contrast this with the other terms: myocarditis refers to inflammation of the heart muscle, leukemia is a type of cancer that primarily affects blood cells in the bone marrow, and aneurysms are dilation or bulging of blood vessel walls but are not tumors or cancerous in nature. These distinctions highlight how fibrosarcoma specifically represents a malignant growth of fibrous connective tissue, thereby making it the correct answer.