The Dabska tumor: a thirty-year retrospect.

The Dabska tumor is a rare low-grade angiosarcoma also known as malignant endovascular papillary angioendothelioma of childhood. It primarily affects the skin of children and has a distinctive histologic pattern of anastomosing vascular channels with intravascular papillary outpouchings projecting, sometimes, in a glomerulus-like pattern, into a lumen lined by atypical columnar endothelial cells. Since its original description 30 years ago by one of us, knowledge in this area has expanded.

Mesenchymal chondrosarcoma. A clinicopathologic analysis of 35 patients with emphasis on treatment.

Almost a quarter of a century has passed since mesenchymal chondrosarcoma, a rare, insufficiently studied and still poorly understood cartilage neoplasm has been described. Based on 35 cases diagnosed and treated at this Cancer Center, this study found 20 males and 15 females with an average age of 26 years (range, 6-70 years). All but five of the tumors arose in the skeleton in the femur, humerus, and ilium in five cases each, while the os calcis (a rare site for any other osseous tumor) gave rise to this tumor in four instances. Pain was the cardinal symptom in 27 patients. The lesional size varied from 4 to 18 cm (average, 9.5 cm). Histologic examination revealed nine of the tumors to be of the small cell undifferentiated types while the others were of the "hemangiopericytomatoid" variant. According to this subclassification, patients with the small cell type of lesions responded to combination chemotherapy and irradiation, as usually do other small cell sarcomas. The addition of surgical resection may be of value especially in the patients with the hemangiopericytomatoid variant. Preliminary results in the treatment of five such patients with evaluable disease suggest that this combined treatment approach is encouraging. Follow-up analysis of all patients revealed a 37.9 months median survival, and 28% to be alive at ten years.

Mesenchymal chondrosarcoma in the young.

It has been almost a quarter of a century that this rare, still poorly understood and to date insufficiently studied, cartilage neoplasm was described. Based on 19 cases in the young representing 26 percent of chondrosarcoma patients under the age of 21 years, this study found equal sex distribution with the youngest patient being a 6-year old boy. Twelve lesions occurred between the ages of 16 and 21 years. All but one of the tumors arose in the skeleton with nearly half of them involving the lower extremity. Pain was inconsistent and rare at presentation in contrast to the regularity of swelling or a painless mass. Survival analysis revealed a 46 percent 2-year and a 35 percent 5-year survival rate, whereas at 10 years only 20 percent of the patients were still alive. This study attempts to establish the likeliest evolutionary pathway of neoplastic cell differentiation and traces the origin of this tumor to a neoplastic caricature of embryonal endochondral osteogenesis.

Decrease of mast cells in the stroma of human cancer.

The number of mast cells in the stroma of human squamous cell cancer -- keratoblastif cum, paraepidermale and male diffusa was 2-30 times lower than in the stroma o-normal squamous epithelium or in the connective tissue distant from neoplastic epithelium. These differences are statistically highly significant. The reduction of mast cel, number apparently might be the result of exhaustion of heparin-containing granules which interfere with tumor growth.

On cytologic vagaries in the diagnosis of breast tumors.

The article describes the difficulties, the errors and limitations of the fine needle aspiration biopsy technique in the diagnosis of the breast tumors encountered during a 2.5 year period of activity. The question of false-negative and false-positive results and the way these problems were partly overcome in the Institute of Oncology in Warsaw are discussed in detail.

Estrogen receptor in human breast cancer in relation to tumor morphology and endocrine therapy.

The presence of estrogen receptors (ER) was determined in 111 human breast cancer specimens. In 61% of the tumors, specific estrogen binding was found and in 39% of the tumors ER was absent. In 69 tumors no correlation was found between the histological grading of the tumor and the level of ER. The values of ER in tumors from patients over 50 years of age were usually much higher than those for patients under 50 years of age. Different methods of endocrine therapy were applied in 20 patients. In 10 of 15 patients with ER positive tumors, endocrine therapy resulted in remission. Only 1 of 5 patients with ER negative tumors responded with remission. It is concluded that estimation of ER in tumor tissue is helpful in the selection of patients for endocrine therapy.

Parachordoma: a new clinicopathologic entity.

Parachordoma is a tumor that was established and described by Laskowski in 1951. It is a rare tumor, which appears adjacent to tendons, synovium, and even osseous structures. It is lobular and pseudoencapsulated. Histologically, in some ways, it is compatible with the chordomas of bone with a constant fibrous tissue component. It grows slowly and is only locally invasive. If not adequately excised, it is prone to recur, but complete surgical removal is usually possible. Its exact histogenesis remains obscure. This tumor may have some relationship to the great vesicular cells of chordoid tissue described by Schaffer as "blasige Zellen von chordoiden Gewebe" developing from special synovial cells. Ten cases collected over a period of 26 years at the Institute of Oncology in Warsaw are presented.

Histochemical features of C-cell thyroid carcinoma.

Six cases of C-cell carcinoma of thyroid gland were studied applying histologic and histochemical methods as well as electron microscopy technique. A histologic feature of the carcinoma pattern was the diversity of pictures. Amyloid was commonly found in the carcinoma stroma. In some cells glycogen was present. Histochemically the carcinoma cells were marked by a strong activity of oxidative enzymes (GDH, SDH, LDH and MAO) as well as hydrolitic one (G-6-P and non specific enterases). Serotonin was found in two cases. An ultrastructural feature of carcinoma cells was the presence of cytoplasmic electron-dense, specific "endocrine type" secretory granules.

Usefulness of drill biopsy in the diagnosis of breast tumors.

A retrospective study was undertaken to analyze the usefulness of 600 drill biopsies taken from 557 breast tumors. Based on the first biopsy, the malignant or benign nature of the tumor was accurately estimated in 93.6% of the cases. A diagnosis of cancer was established microscopically in 87.4% of the tumors. In our opinion, this method proved to be valuable and is recommended for outpatient clinics.