Challenges in the Management of Massive Carotid Body Tumor.

The carotid body paraganglioma is a rare benign neoplasm arising from the chemoreceptor cells of the carotid bulb. The carotid body has the largest collection of paraganglia in the head and neck with 60-70% of head and neck paraganglioma. Paraganglia are clusters of cells originating from the neural crest with histological and cytochemical characteristics of neuroendocrine cells. It is mostly asymptomatic in early presentation but become symptomatic and difficult to manage when the tumor is large. We present a case of a 26-year-old male who presented with a painless, pulsatile, progressively increasing left lateral neck swelling of 5 years duration with Shamblin IIIa. The diagnosis of the tumor was confirmed based on clinical features, histology, and radiological findings. We had difficult surgical dissection of the tumor with neurovascular damage.

Respiratory Epithelial Adenomatoid Hamartoma: An Uncommon Differential of Nasopharyngeal Tumor.

Respiratory epithelial adenomatoid hamartoma (REAH) is an uncommon tumor-like lesion that has been reported within the nose, paranasal sinuses, and less frequently in the nasopharynx. While it is believed to be benign, its clinical presentation, radiological characteristics, and microscopic features may closely mimic more aggressive tumors of the upper respiratory tract, potentially leading to needless life-altering treatment. Prior to now, there had been no reported cases of this lesion in West Africa. We present a 35-year-old male with persistent bilateral nasal obstruction, difficulty with swallowing, and bilateral reduction in hearing, whose CT findings were highly suggestive of a nasopharyngeal tumor, but upon biopsy and histology showed features most consistent with REAH. Surgery completely alleviated his symptoms with no clinical evidence of recurrence after a 1-year follow-up period.

Poorly differentiated carcinoma with neuroendocrine features in two patients with sinonasal tumours: a report of two cases.

Neuroendocrine tumors can be described as rare, heterogeneous, epithelial tumours with principally neuroendocrine differentiation that can be harboured in the sinonasal cavities. Owing to the intermingling of its clinical, radiological and histopathological features, the diagnosis of poorly differentiated sinonasal carcinomas with neuroendocrine features is a daunting one. Many of these tumours have a poor prognosis. In our two cases, patients presented with nasal cavity obstruction and growth of 8 & 5-months duration, respectively. Intranasal growths with intracranial extensions were noted in computed tomography scans in both patients. Our first patient failed to complete his cycle of induction chemotherapy (Cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil) and died 8 months after presentation while our second patient completed his cycle of induction chemotherapy but died 1year, 6months, after presentation, as he was unable to get the planned radiotherapy. Indeed, late presentations, intracranial metastasis, and poor treatment compliance can contribute to the poor outcome of these tumours.

Malignant Phyllodes Tumor: Report of Two Cases and Review of Literature.

Phyllodes tumuor (PT) is a rare biphasic breast neoplasm. It constitutes <1% of the entire tumours of the breast. Based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) proposal, premised on multiple histological features, phyllodes tumour is categorized into benign, borderline, and malignant breast neoplasms. Malignant phyllodes tumor (MPT) is even a rarer neoplasm. It occurs more commonly in older patients. However, it can uncommonly occur in younger individuals. The transformation of benign phyllodes into malignant forms is extremely rare. Here, we present two cases of young females (aged 20 and 27 years, respectively) who individually presented with rapidly progressive breast lumps. The two breast lumps were huge while one was recurrent and underwent a malignant transformation in approximately 7 weeks interval following an initial complete excision and histological diagnosis of benign PT. Indeed, even in young females below the modal/peak age of phyllodes, the suspicion should be high. Additionally, breast ultrasonography findings, although not common, can be highly suggestive of PT. Furthermore, every breast lump should be further evaluated, and even more so, histologically, irrespective of the patient's age as our first patient had an excision without histology.