ABSTRACT
Fibrous hamartoma of infancy is a soft tissue subdermal fibromatous tumour that characteristically occurs in the first years of life. It is histologically composed of three different components that are intimately admixed: well-defined bundles of fibro-myofibroblastic spindle-shaped cells, nodular proliferations of immature-looking mesenchymal cells set in a myxoid stroma, and mature adipose tissue. A wide intralesional and interlesional cellular composition is commonly observed. Fibrous hamartoma of infancy usually arises from subcutaneous tissue of the trunk, axilla, upper extremities and inguinal region. Only rarely has fibrous hamartoma of infancy been reported in genital organs, with only one case described in the labium majus. We report a rare case of fibrous hamartoma of infancy in the labium majus of a 1-year old female child. Ultrasonography revealed the presence of a mass-like lesion involving subcutaneous tissue, with ill-defined margins. We emphasize that fibrous hamartoma of infancy should be included in the differential diagnosis of soft tissue tumour-like and tumour lesions of the vulva in children. Awareness that fibrous hamartoma of infancy occurs at this site with irregular margins is important to avoid confusion with other lesions exhibiting a more aggressive behaviour.
Subject(s)
Hamartoma/pathology , Vaginal Neoplasms/pathology , Female , Humans , InfantABSTRACT
Thymic carcinoma is exceptionally rare in children and it has never previously been associated with autoimmune disorders. The authors report the case of an 11-year-old boy with thymic carcinoma, hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy, and an autoimmune disease that resembled systemic lupus erythematosus. To their knowledge, this is the first case of such complex clinical findings. The tumor was of high grade histologically and the boy died after 1 year, in spite of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. A review is presented of the available medical literature on thymic malignancy in childhood.
Subject(s)
Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/diagnosis , Osteoarthropathy, Primary Hypertrophic/diagnosis , Thymoma/diagnosis , Thymus Neoplasms/diagnosis , Child , Fatal Outcome , Humans , Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/complications , Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/pathology , Male , Osteoarthropathy, Primary Hypertrophic/complications , Osteoarthropathy, Primary Hypertrophic/pathology , Thymoma/complications , Thymoma/pathology , Thymus Neoplasms/complications , Thymus Neoplasms/pathology , Tomography, X-Ray ComputedABSTRACT
Gastric carcinoma represents only 0.05% of malignant paediatric gastrointestinal tumours. This condition is associated with a poor prognosis because its rarity and non-specificity of the symptoms usually delay its diagnosis. The authors present a 16-year-old girl with a poorly differentiated gastric carcinoma (signet-ring-cell type) with bilateral ovarian metastases who died of peritoneal carcinomatosis despite extensive surgery and chemotherapy. The epidemiological, clinical, and pathological features of gastric carcinoma in childhood are discussed.
