Malignant transformation of craniopharyngioma with detailed follow-up.

A 29-year-old male patient was admitted into hospital with the main complaint of progressive visual disturbance. Both CT SCAN and MRI demonstrated a cystic-solid contrast-enhancing sellar-suprasellar mass with obvious calcification. Histopathological examination of the first resected specimen showed a typical appearance of adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma. The patient received gamma knife therapy after his first operation because of partial tumor removal. He experienced two relapses in the subsequent 2 years, for which only surgical resection was performed. The later histopathology presented malignant appearance with tumor cells moderate to severe pleomorphism, hyperchromasia, increased nuclear cytoplastic ratio, high mitotic activity (30/10 high power fields) and focal coagulative necrosis. The patient died 9 months after identification of histologic malignancy. Clinical and histopathological features, biological behavior of one case of malignant craniopharyngioma were discussed, with a brief review of the relevant literature.

[Pleuropulmonary blastoma of adults: a clinicopathological analysis].

OBJECTIVE: To report two cases of pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB) of adults and improving the understanding of this tumor. METHODS: The clinicopathological features of two cases of adult PPB were examined by light microscope and an immunohistochemical study. RESULTS: As a rare malignant mesenchymal tumor, PPB arose from primitive cells of lung, pleura and mediastinum. Consisting of primitive undifferentiated sarcoma cells and few epithelial cells, the tumor was positive for mesenchymal differentiated markers by immunohistochemistry. CONCLUSION: PPB is a rare malignant embryonal tumor. The diagnosis of this tumor is rather difficult since it lacks pathomorphological or immunohistochemical features.