The diagnosis of villoglandular adenocarcinoma of cervix on cytological smears is often missed due to the relatively bland cytological features of this tumour. A 45-year-old female with an exophytic cervical growth had three cervical smears reported as unsatisfactory. A cervical biopsy followed by Wertheim's hysterectomy showed a villoglandular adenocarcinoma (VGA) of cervix. Vaginal recurrence of VGA was again missed on the first post-operative vault smear. The second and third vault smears showed characteristic features of VGA that enabled correct identification. Review of some of the smears previously reported as unsatisfactory showed architectural features of VGA in the three dimensional (3-D) fragments that were previously considered to be benign.
Osteosarcomas are highly malignant neoplasms of bone that are challenging to diagnose. These neoplasms often show atypical behavior. In the initial phase they may present as nondescript bony swellings with an indolent growth rate, only to become overtly aggressive and malignant towards the later phase of the disease. Similarly, the histological growth pattern of this neoplasm can be quite diverse, presenting with areas that mimic benign myofibroblastic tumors, giant cell granulomatous conditions and partial encapsulation. The final diagnosis of an osteosarcoma is often reached after thorough sampling and examination of multiple biopsy specimens. All these clinical features and histological diagnostic difficulties were encountered in a case of osteosarcoma affecting the right mandible of a 62-year-old Chinese woman described here. The diagnostic lessons accrued from this case are discussed.
To investigate RET and p53 expression in local thyroid lesions, in order to shed light on the pathogenesis of papillary carcinoma and explain the high prevalence of this condition among the nodular hyperplasia (multi-nodular goitre) cases.
Inverted papilloma is a rare, benign tumour representing only 0.5 to 4 per cent of all sinonasal neoplasms; its involvement of the middle ear is extremely rare. We present a case of multicentric inverted papilloma in the sinonasal region and middle ear in a 54-year-old man. The patient later developed neck metastasis secondary to malignant transformation of the inverted papilloma in the middle ear.
The aim of this study was to identify the prognostic factors that influence the survival of differentiated thyroid cancer patients treated at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM).
Endometrial stromal sarcoma is a rare tumour of the uterus. We reported a case of a young lady with endometrial stromal sarcoma. She became pregnant while having the disease and delivered a healthy baby, her sixth, without any complication. A total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral oopherectomy was performed subsequently. She refused any added treatment after the operation. To date, she is free of any recurrence.
The association of human papillomavirus (HPV) with juvenile laryngeal papillomatosis has been well documented. We report two cases of juvenile laryngeal papillomatosis and correlated these cases with presence of HPV, p53 and c-erbB-2 proteins. The first case was a one-year-old male patient and the second a six-year-old female patient. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens were tested for the presence of HPV genome by the technique of in situ hybridisation using wide spectrum and type specific biotinylated probes while the immunohistochemical expression of p53 (D07, 1:50) and c-erbB-2 (DAKO A0485, 1:300) proteins were evaluated with commercially available antibodies. Histologically the tumours in both cases showed papillary configuration of squamous papilloma. The first case detected HPV type 6, HPV type 11 and p53 protein expression while the second case showed only HPV type 6. Both cases of HPV showed positive signals confined to the nuclei in the superficial squamous epithelium. The first case showed p53 positivity seen from the basal region up to one third of the epithelium of laryngeal papillomas and the subsequent recent repeat biopsy showed the positivity of p53 had extended throughout the upper layers of the epithelium. Expression of c-erbB-2 protein was not detected in both cases. These findings were similar as in other studies where follow-up of the cases was recommended since they tend to recur.
Multiple lung cavitations and endobronchial nodules are rare presentations of newly diagnosed and recurrent Hodgkin's disease. The clinical and radiological features can be confused with pulmonary tuberculosis, which can be difficult to exclude in endemic areas. However, the presence of endobronchial nodules point, towards Hodgkin's disease. Differential diagnosis is aided by the fact that these lesions usually respond promptly to specific therapy. We present a case of an adolescent male who had constitutional and pulmonary symptoms associated with pulmonary cavities and endobronchial nodules subsequently confirmed to be Hodgkin's disease.
Radiotherapy has an established role in reducing the local relapses in breast cancer patients. The objective of this review was to investigate whether radiotherapy or its omission after breast surgery has measurable consequences on local tumor recurrence and patient survival. The late excess of cardiac deaths has also been published in various reports but important advances in the delivery of radiotherapy have overcome this problem to the extent that, excess cardiac deaths do not appear to be occurring in more recent trials. In this article some recent data, suggesting that radiotherapy following mastectomy and/or breast conserving surgery has a beneficial effect on survival is reviewed. Omission of radiotherapy is associated with a large increase in risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence and with a small increase in the risk of patient's mortality.
We report a case of 50-year-old man who was presented with recurrent episodes of left sided hemiparesis. CT scan and MRI brain revealed a large intraventricular fatty lesion. Histopathological examination showed a picture of angiolipoma.
Musculoskeletal tumour is much less common compared to tumours of epithelial origin. Most of these tumours are benign, with only about 1% malignant in nature. A general orthopaedic surgeon may only come across a malignant primary bone or soft tissue tumour a few times in his entire medical career. The current recommendation is for these conditions to be investigated and treated in centres with musculoskeletal oncology service. Careful clinical evaluation with appropriate plain radiography can provide adequate information for definitive diagnosis and treatment for most cases, especially the benign tumours. For some other cases, further investigations will be necessary. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide excellent details on anatomical location of a tumour and delineate vital structures that may have been distorted by the lesion. For primary malignant tumours, computerized tomography scanning is still the gold standard for evaluation of pulmonary metastasis, and bone scan can allow early detection of distant metastasis to other bones. Whole body MRI has recently been recommended for tumour staging but the potential benefit for musculoskeletal tumour is not that convincing. PET may be very helpful for follow up detection of tumour recurrence but its role in diagnosis and staging of musculoskeletal tumours is still being evaluated...
Biopsy is a crucial step in the management of musculoskeletal sarcoma. The surgical approach to the biopsy site is important, as the tract must be removed en bloc with the tumour during limb sparing surgery so as to reduce the risk of local recurrence. The biopsy tracts of 26 osteosarcoma patients were evaluated histologically for tumour infiltration. Horizontal sections of 1 mm thickness with 2 cm radius from were evaluated from each excised biopsy tract. Five out of 26 cases (19.2%) showed positive tumour infiltration. One case (3.85%) had tumour infiltration in the pseudocapsule, two cases (7.69%) had tumour infiltration into the muscle and two other cases (7.69%) had tumour infiltration into the subcutaneous tissue. None had skin infiltration. We conclude that resection of the entire biopsy tract is indeed mandatory for surgical treatment of osteosarcoma.
Respiratory papillomatosis is a disease of viral origin which is characterized by warty exophytic lesions in the aerodigestive tract. It is the most common benign lesion of larynx and the second most common cause of hoarseness in children. It has the tendency to recur and to spread through out the entire length of the aerodigestive tract. Although a benign disease, it has the potential of morbid consequences in view of airway complications and the risk of malignant transformation. We report a case of juvenile onset of respiratory papillomatosis and its therapeutic challenges.
A 5-month-old girl presented with a soft-tissue mass over the lateral aspect of her right eyebrow. Surgical resection revealed a diagnosis of infantile malignant hemangiopericytoma. The mass recurred after excision and reconstruction. The patient died 4 months later with brain and lung metastasis.
BACKGROUND: Sebaceous nevus is a benign congenital epidermal nevus. Its association with basal cell carcinoma is well known.
METHOD: This is a case report of sebaceous carcinoma complicated by both basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.
RESULTS: The behavior of this tumor is very aggressive, resulting in poor prognosis.
CONCLUSIONS: All sebaceous nevi should be excised early.
Pleomorphic sarcoma is the most common sarcoma. Reports of outcome as well as evaluation of prognostic factors in the literature show great variation. We looked at our experience in treating this tumour at University Malaya Medical Center. This is a review of patients diagnosed with Pleomorphic Sarcoma from January 1990 to December 2005 at University Malaya Medical Center. Outcome measures studied are the overall survival, disease free survival and local recurrence of disease. Prognostic factors for survival and local recurrence which were studied are the tumour size, depth, stage, type of surgery, adjuvant therapy, and surgical margin. There were fifty four patients available for analysis of demographics. The mean age at presentation was 52.3 +/- 16.7 years. There were thirty male patients (56%) and twenty four female patients (44%) in the study population. The patients were predominantly Malay (44.4%) and Chinese (42.6%). There were two Indian patients (3.7%) and five patients from other races (9.3%). Thirty patients had disease affecting the extremities while six patients had disease affecting the trunk. Patients with tumour affecting the trunk had 100% mortality. In patients with tumour affecting the extremity, 46.7% presented with Stage 3 disease. The overall median survival was 39 months. The overall survival rate at 3 years was 53.3% and the 5 years was 30.0%. The disease free survival rate at five years was 27.6%. However, if patients who presented with metastasis were excluded, the 5 year survival rate was 60% while the disease free survival was 53.3%. Recurrence rate was 33.3%. Factors affecting survival was stage, size and location of tumour. No factors were found to correlate with higher local recurrence rate. In conclusion, Pleomorphic Sarcoma is a heterogenous disease with variable outcome. In our centre, late presentation with advanced disease significantly affects the overall outcome of this condition. Tumour size and location are important prognostic factors. Inherent tumour behavior and aggressiveness probably outweigh current treatment modalities as the most important prognostic factor in the management of Pleomorphic Sarcoma.
Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a heterogenous disease in which oncogene fusion transcripts are known to influence the biological behaviour of the different ALL subtypes. Screening for prognostically important transcripts is an important diagnostic step in treatment stratification and prognostication of affected patients. We describe a SYBR-Green real-time multiplex PCR assay to screen for transcripts TEL-AML1, E2A-PBX1, MLL-AF4, and the two breakpoints of BCR-ABL (p190 and p210). Validation of the assay was based on conventional karyotyping results. This new assay provides a rapid, sensitive, and accurate detection method for prognostically important transcripts in childhood ALL.