Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the breast.

Mucoepidermoid carcinomas are very rare breast tumors. The morphology of this breast tumour is similar to its counterpart in the salivary gland. The first two cases reported were low-grade and neither patient had metastatic disease. Furthermore, none of the five patients with low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma reported by Fisher had axillary lymph node involvement and were alive with no evidence of disease 4 to 10 years after diagnosis and were considered of probable favourable prognosis. A high grade form of mucoepidermoid cancer might occur in the breast as it does in the salivary gland. All high-grade variant cases published had demonstrable lymph node or distant metastases and rapidly fatal outcomes. This report describes a case of high-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the breast with a disease-free interval of 5 years, despite of unfavourable histologic features at the time of diagnosis.

A cytologic, ultrastructural and immunocytochemical comparison of tumor cells and cell cultures originating in invasive bladder carcinoma.

Tumor cells and urine-voided cells from patients with invasive bladder carcinoma as well as from healthy patients were examined cytologically, ultrastructurally and immunocytochemically. The ultrastructure of tumor cells showed an abundant, dilated, rough endoplasmic reticulum in the form of membrane-bound vacuoles full of granular to fibrillar material located perinuclearly and/or paranuclearly. Some cells exhibited enlarged modified lysosomes containing sparce flocculent and particulate precipitate. Papanicolaou staining of these cells showed two basophilic cytoplasmic textures, one green glossy-patchy, perinuclearly and/or paranuclearly, well segregated from the other texture of peripheral hematoxylinophilic foamy cytoplasm, comparable to the cytologic features of cell cultures originating in invasive bladder carcinoma. PAS diastase showed double distribution and texture of the perinuclear glycosaminoglycans, a glossy accumulated mass and large granules. Glycosaminoglycan sacs similar to those of cell cultures were also present in tumor-dispersed cells. There was a nonspecific binding of antisera against lysozyme, human chorionic gonadotropin and alpha 1-trypsin in normal and tumor cells. Tumor cells and tissues were positive for alpha 1-chymotrypsin distributed perinuclearly and in large spheres. Normal cells lacked the above characteristics. The results indicate that it is feasible to use the aforementioned characteristics in conjunction with the existing bladder-cytologic criteria for malignancy as markers in urothelial cancer with regard to prognosis of superficial tumors with high malignant potential.

Epithelioid angiosarcoma of the adrenal gland associated with chronic arsenical intoxication?

Epithelioid angiosarcoma is a rare tumor quite recently described. There is no accurate epidemiological study of this tumor. Among the internal organs, the liver is the one most frequently affected with angiosarcoma while there is no reference to the adrenal gland as a primary site. It is well known that the direct exposure to arsenicals (especially of vineyard cultivators) may be an important causative factor in the pathogenesis of the disease. A 59-year-old male vineyard cultivator with an epithelioid angiosarcoma of the right adrenal gland is described. The histologic characteristics as well as the immunohistochemical profile of the tumor are presented and the literature is briefly reviewed.

[Granulomatous cheilitis. Case report]. / Kokkiomatodes cheilitida. (Anaphora periptoseos)

A case of granulomatous cheilitis, an uncommon disease that is difficult to be treated is described. The disease is of unknown etiology and it may represents a monosymptomatic form of Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome. The significance of the clinical lesions, the microscopic features as well as the recent aetiological aspects of the disease are discussed.