Cervical metastatic glioblastoma multiforme

Glioblastoma multiforme [GBM] is the most common and most malignant primary brain tumour in adults. In spite of the hostile nature of glioblastoma multiforme [GBM], extracranial spread is not a common event. With improving management choices and survival times, reports of extracranial occurrence of GBM have increased. Most commonly these metastases are to the lungs, lymph nodes, neck/skull, scalp, liver, and bones; may be evident on routine follow-up images of the original lesion. Head and neck metastasis of GBM can be debilitating. We present a case of cervical metastasis of GBM and discuss possible mechanisms of extraneural spread of this tumour

Primary angiosarcoma of breast

Primary breast sarcomas, except for phyllodes tumour, are very rare entities, accounting for < 0.1% of all malignant neoplasms. Angiosarcoma of breast is infrequent malignancy and differential diagnosis from other sarcomatous and angiomatous breast tumours holds importance. Two cases of primary angiosarcoma of breast were encountered. One involved a 32 years lady who was treated by wide local excision and six cycles of chemotherapy. The other occurred in a 54 years old lady who was treated with mastectomy, did not receive any radiation or chemotherapy and was later lost to follow-up. Neither of the patient had history of previous breast surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy

Primary chondrosarcoma of breast

Mammary sarcomas are heterogeneous group of malignant neoplasms that arise from the mammary stroma. They are uncommon tumours and most of these occur as a component of other tumours. Of the malignant breast mesenchymal tumours, pure sarcomas which lack epithelial component are rarer as these comprise only 0.5% of the breast tumours. Of these, the most common are angiosarcomas, liposarcomas and osteosarcomas. Pure, primary and De novo chondrosarcomas features as one of the rarer types of sarcomas of breast and should be differentiated from Phylloides tumours with chondromatous areas by extensive sampling which also excludes ductal elements in the tumour. This case report describes very rare primary breast sarcoma i.e. chondrosarcoma in a female aged 40 years which was treated by simple mastectomy

Primary hydatid cyst of the neck

Hydatid cysts in the neck are relatively exceptional, even in areas where Echinococcus granulosis is endemic, such as Asia. Although liver and lung are frequent sites of involvement, it can involve all tissues, with neck remaining one of the most rare sites. It should come in the differential diagnosis of cystic lesion of neck, as the treatment options differ widely from common neck cysts. The role of radiological investigation is important and, in these cases, the involvement of other organs should be investigated. Serological tests may be helpful. The major treatment modality is surgical and the cyst should be excised as a whole, without being ruptured, to prevent any treatment complications, as the cyst fluid can initiate an anaphylactic reaction. Postoperative albendazole therapy is recommended particularly when there is intra-operative spillover. We report a case of an isolated hydatid cyst localized in the anterior triangle of the neck without any pulmonary or hepatic involvement.

Squamous inclusion cyst in a sentinel axillary lymph node associated with breast malignancy

Axillary intranodal squamous inclusion cyst is a rare benign histological finding that may be confused with malignant diseases. A 52 years old female presented with a painless lump in the left breast for one and a half month. The mammogram was reported as being suspicious of carcinoma. Left breast lumpectomy and histology revealed infiltrating ductal carcinoma. After a month, modified radical mastectomy was done. Frozen section of axillary sentinel lymph nodes revealed benign histology with squamous inclusion cyst in one of the nodes. All lymph nodes recovered from mastectomy specimen were also benign

Fine needle aspiration cytology of pseudopapillary tumour of pancreas

The solid-cystic pseudopapillary neoplasm is a rare pancreatic tumor having indolent course and amenable to complete excision. This is a report of two cases of this tumour, diagnosed on fine needle aspiration cytology. One of the cases had complete surgical excision of the mass and subsequent histological evaluation. This benign and rare neoplasm of pancreas often causes few symptoms. The characteristic cytomorphological features point towards the diagnosis

Breast cancer: steroid receptors and other prognostic indicators

To correlate hormone receptor status in breast cancer with patient's age, tumor size, type, grade and lymph node metastasis. A descriptive study. Department of Histopathology, Liaquat National Postgraduate Medical Center, Karachi, from January 2002 to March 2003. One hundred and fifty patients of breast cancer were studied. Estrogen and progesterone receptor status was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. This was correlated with patients' age, tumor size, type, grade and lymph node status. Out of 150 cases, 55% of cases were estrogen receptor [ER] negative progesterone receptor [PR] negative. Older women tended to have more steroid receptor reactivity as compared with younger ones. ER positivity decreased with increasing tumor size and grade, however, no significant correlation was seen with lymph node metastasis. Majority of the tumors showing ERPR positivity were infiltrating ductal carcinoma-not otherwise specified type. This study reports a significantly higher incidence of ER negative PR negative phenotype in breast cancer patients. This observation is different as compared with that in western literature where ER positive PR positive phenotype is greater than the negative phenotype suggesting that breast cancer in our patients may have different disease pattern and biology