Estrogen receptor(ER) is a soluble form of hormone receptor protein which is located in the nucleus and cytoplasm of a cell is found in 60% of cases of the cells of breast carcinoma. Fifty to sixty percent of ER positive breast carcinoma responds to antihormone therapy wheres the response rate is only 5% in ER negative tumors. Currently, the ER assay has become a standard index in the management and prediction of the prognosis of advanced breast carcinoma. Semiquantitative biochemical assay, dextran-coated charcol(DCC) assay, to measure ER from fresh tissue was first developed by Korenman in 1970 using isotope-labled ertradiol, has been widely utilized. In 1978, Kurzon newly developed immunocytochemical assay(ICA) employing monoclonal antibody against those hormone receptors to detect intracellular localization of ER and progesterone receptor (PR). The results of the assay have been reported by many investigators thereafter. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hormonal receptors with a monoclonal antibody using an immunoperoxidase procedure to detect both estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER-immunocytochemical assay:ER-ICA and PR-immunocytochemical assay:PR-ICA) in 59 cases of paraffin embedded sections from formalin-fixed and routinely processed breast carcinoma tissue. Concomitantly, fine-needle aspiration biopsy cytology of the breast cancer from 29 women were assayed for ER/PR receptors. Results were compared with quantitative biochemical values determined from dextran-coated charcoal(DCC) assay on the fresh tumor tissue obtained subsequently from the surgery. ER-ICA showed positive result in 22 out of 36 DCC-positive cases(sensitivity, 61.1%) and negative in 23 out of 23 DCC-negative cases (specificity, 100.0%). PR-ICA was positive in 33 out of 35 DCC-positive cases(sensitivity, 94.3%) and negative in 16 out of 24 DCC-negative cases(specificity, 66.7%). The value of ER-ICA or PR-ICA positivity were roughly correlated with the concentration of ER/PR receptors analyzed by DCC method. The results of both methods were correlated with the nuclear grade of the tumor(ICA:p=0.002, DCC: p=0.015) but were not correlated with histologic grade(ICA: p=0.323, DCC: p=0.0164). ER-ICA positivity was correlated with lower incidence of axillary node metastasis (p=0.021) but no significant correlation between PR-ICA positivity and node metastasis(p=0.171). Both ER/PR-ICA positivity were not correlated with age(p=0.924) and tumor size(p=0.663). The score of ICA particularly ER was proportional to DCC level(ER: r=0.5, p=0.000, PR: r=0.2, p=0.000). ICA concordance with DCC of ER and PR were 76.3% and 83.1%, respectively. The concordance of PR-ICA and DCC was proportional but was statistically less significant. In aspiration biopsy cytology the concordance of ER/PR-ICA and DCC were 72.4% and 65.5%, respectively. Immunocytochemical staining to identify ER/PR receptors from the tissue of breast carcinoma would be tested as a mean to substitute for the conventional DCC method.
Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Biopsy ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Breast Neoplasms

Cancer of the alimentary tract in children is an extremely rare occurence, and it accounts for no more than 5% of all pediatric neoplasms. Malignant neoplasms of the stomach are particularly uncommon in childhood. The majority of such lesions are malignant lymphomas or soft tissue sarcomas, with less than 5% identified as carcinomas. We report a case of signet ring cell carcinoma of stomach in 15-year-old girl. This patient had a clinical manifestation of cough with sputum, fever, abdominal distension due to ascites, hepatomegaly, and cervical lymphadenopathy for 40 days. There was no known gastrointestinal symptoms. Metastatic signet ring cell carcinoma was suspected by aspiration biopsy cytology of cervical lymph node, and confirmed later by excisional biopsy. Endoscopy confirmed a small mucosal erosion in the anterior wall of the antrum and histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of signet ring cell carcinoma.
Child ; Male ; Female ; Humans ; Biopsy ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Stomach Neoplasms

Adenomatoid tumors are well-recognized neoplasms generally to be of mesothelial derivation. We experienced a case of an adenomatoid tumor of the tail of the epididymis in a 56-year-old male. Grossly the tumor was firm and whitish gray, and microscopically it consisted of glandular, cord-like, microcystic structures which were lined by flattened endothelial like to plump cuboidal cells. Immunohistochemical stains whowed positivity for keratin and negativity for facter VIII related antigen and carcinoembryonic antigen. Ultrastructually, there was many long microvilli projecting into the glandular lumina and intracytoplasmic luminal spaces, desmosomes, and prominent cytoplasmic tonofilaments. Those findings strongly support the mesothelial origin of the adenomatoid tumor especially in the glandular type. It also lead us to suggest that the term adenomatoid tumor should be remain in use for light microscopic diagnosis, and that the term adenomatoid mesothelioma should be applied when the mesothelial nature of an adenomatoid tumor is proven by electron microscopy and immunohistochemical stains.

Among the precancerous lesions, dysplasia of the uterine cervix and adenoma of the colon have been widely studied in terms of genetic alterations. However, little has been performed regarding phenotypic alterations of the precancerous lesions. We investigated the relationship among cellular proliferation, clonality, immortality and histopathologic grading of the squamous epithelial lesions of the uterine cervix. Proliferation index (PI) was calculated based on the ratio of the epithelial cells positive for proliferating cell nuclear antigen to the total epithelial cells. Clonality was assayed by X-linked HUMARA polymorphism. For immortality assay, PCR-based TRAP (telomeric repeat amplification protocol) was done and telomerase processivity was calculated by comparison with the positive control. PI increased gradually as the lesions advanced from dysplasia to invasive carcinoma. Among informative case, all of the carcinoma in situ showed monoclonal pattern (7 of 7). Among invasive squamous cell carcinoma, 6 cases showed monoclonal pattern and 2 cases polyclonal pattern. TRAP reaction was positive in 92.6% (25 of 27) of dysplasia (high grade: 14 of 15; low grade: 11 of 12), 95.0% (19 of 20) of carcinoma in situ, 100% (9 of 9) of microinvasive carcinoma, and 92.9% (13 of 14) of invasive carcinoma. It was also positive in 12 of 12 samples of chronic cervicitis or squamous metaplasia near the lesions of dysplasia. There was no difference in TRAP positivity among the dysplasia, carcinoma in situ and invasive carcinoma, whereas telomerase processivity showed significant correlation. These results suggest that proliferative activity and telomerase processivity may be progressive events in oncogenesis, although telomerase activation may be an early event.
Adenoma ; Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma in Situ ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cell Proliferation ; Cervix Uteri ; Colon ; Epithelial Cells ; Female ; Metaplasia ; Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen ; Telomerase ; Uterine Cervicitis

This is a retrospective review of fine-needle aspiration cytology(FNAC) smears of 153 cases of thyroid disease performed during August 1989 to July 1995, which were confirmed histologically following surgical operations. FNAC results showed 63 cases(41.2%) of adenomatous goiter, 45 cases(29.4%) of papillary carcinoma, 29 cases(19.0%) of follicular neoplasm, 4 cases(2.6%) of follicular variant of papillary carcinoma, 4 cases(2.6%) of Hashimoto's thyroiditis, 4 cases(2.6%) of Hurthle cell neoplasm, 2 cases(1.3%) of medullary carcinoma and one case(O.7%) each of subacute thyroiditis and of anaplastic carcinoma. The overall accuracy of cytological diagnosis was 83.7%. These data strongly suggest thyroid FNAC is a reliable preoperative diagnostic tool, but FNAC has been less valuable in the diagnosis of follicular lesions than any other disease of the thyroid. Adenomatous goiter was not infrequently interpreted as follicular neoplasia that requires surgery for diagnostic .conformation and vice versa. The following findings are considered to be compatible with follicular neoplasm: 1) microfolticles, 2) nuclear grooving, 3) irregularity of nuclear membrane, and 4) irregular arrangement or crowding of follicular cells in groups. The FNAC criteria of adenomatous goiter are as follows: 1) atrophic follicular cells, 2) presence of macrophages, 3) abundant colloid, and 4) large follicles. It is recommended that aspiration of thyroid lesions in order to analyse with critical clinico pathological approach and surgery is considered only for nodules that are clinically suspicious or unresponsive to hormone therapy or when a diagnosis of follicular neoplasm is made.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle* ; Carcinoma ; Carcinoma, Medullary ; Carcinoma, Papillary ; Central Nervous System ; Colloids ; Crowding ; Diagnosis ; Endodermal Sinus Tumor ; Germinoma ; Goiter ; Macrophages ; Nuclear Envelope ; Retrospective Studies ; Thyroid Diseases ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroiditis ; Thyroiditis, Subacute

In the past, parasitic diseases were a major problem in public health in Korea. In recent years, however, nematodiasis that used be prevalent are no longer a serious problem. Instead some cestodiasis, particularly cysticercosis and sparganosis have become comparatively more important in recent years. Parasitic infestation of soft tissue is presented as a subcutaneous nodule or mass with nonspecific clinical manifestations.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle* ; Cysticercosis ; Korea ; Parasitic Diseases ; Public Health ; Sparganosis

Somatostatinoma is rare endocrine tumor that was first described in 1977 by Ganda et al. and Larsson et al. simultaneously. It seems nonfunctioning at clinical level. But it may present with diabetes, diarrhea, cholelithiasis, steatorrhea, indigestion, hypochlorhydria, and anemia. In contrast with pancreatic somatostatinoma, duodenal somatostatinoma, in general, is clinically silent. Duodenal endocrine tumors show similar histologic pattern. Therefore, the definite diagnosis is performed by immunohistochemistry and electron microscopic examination. We have experienced a case of somatostatinoma of duodenum in a 62-year-old male. He has complained generalized pruritus for one year and jaundice for 2 weeks. Grossly, the mass was a intraluminary protruding, polypoid lesion with focal mucosal erosion at immediately distal to Ampulla of Vater. Histologically, it showed tall, cylindrical cells with distinct cell membranes, having granular cytoplasm and small innocent looking nuclei. No mitosis was seen. The tumor cells were arraged in small solid groups and trabeculae, separated by fibrovascular stroma. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were strongly positive with somatostatin and negative with several other hormonal and neuroendocrine markers. Ultrastructurally, the cytoplasm contains numerous, homogeneous low electron dense secretory granules, which are essentially similar to those seen in normal delta cells.

Small cell carcinoma of the lung is characterized by cells with finely stippled chromatin and scanty cytoplasm as well as a particularly aggressive clinical course and favorable response to the chemotherapy. Recently percutaneous fine needle aspiration(FNA) biopsy has become both widely established and highly respected for the diagnosis of lung cancer. However metastatic small cell carcinoma of lymph node should be cytologically differentiated from the small round cell tumor of particular sites, especially malignant lymphoma, because small cell carcinoma of classic oat cell type may simulate small cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. We report five cases of metastatic small cell carcinoma of intermediate cell type diagnosed by FNA of the enlarged lymph nodes of the neck and axilla. The cytologic smears contained diffuse small neoplastic cells larger than lymphocytes with dense, pyknotic nuclei and extremely scanty cytoplasm. Apparently viable large tumor cells have vesicular nuclei with granular, sometimes very coarse chromatin. The characteristic cytologic features of small cell carcinoma as compared to malignant lymphoma were as follows.: 1) small cells with dense pyknotic nuclei are evenly distributed in the background of apparently viable larger tumor cells, admixed with mature lymphocytes and phagocytic macrophages. 2) small loose aggregates of cells with nuclear molding are indicative of small cell carcinoma rather than non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. 3) the cytoplasmic and nuclear fragments of tumor necrosis are more dominant in the smears of small cell carcinoma. 4) nuclear membrane and nucleoli are generally indistinct in small cell carcinoma due to condensation of chromatin.
Avena ; Axilla ; Biopsy ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle* ; Carcinoma, Small Cell ; Chromatin ; Cytoplasm ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Fungi ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Lymph Nodes* ; Lymphocytes ; Lymphoma ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin* ; Macrophages ; Neck ; Necrosis ; Needles ; Nuclear Envelope

Cutaneous metastases from gastric carcinoma are uncommon. The frequency of metastses to the skin from gastric carcinoma have ranged from 0.3% to 0.4%. Carcinoma en cuirasse, first described by Velpeau in 1838, is marked sclerodermatous change and characterized by a difffuse morphea-like induration of the skin and represents a rare manifestations of breast carcinoma metastatic to the chest wall. It is vary rarely seen in lung, stomach, kidney and other metastasizing malignancies. We report a case of carcinoma en cuirase and nodular carcinoma from gastric carcinoma in a 36-year-old male who complained chiefly of multiple cutaneous nodules. He had mixed lesions of an erythematous morphea-like induration on the neck and multiple erythematous nodules on the chest and abdomen. Gastroscopy finding showed a Borrmann type IV advanced gastric carcinoma. Histopathologic examination of skin and stomach showed atypical cells with pleomorpic, hyperchromatic nuclei and scanty, eosinophilic cytoplasm, which are consistent with poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemical stainings showed positive reaction for cytokeratin. He died three months after the appearance of cutaneous lesions.
Abdomen ; Adenocarcinoma ; Adult ; Breast Neoplasms ; Cytoplasm ; Eosinophils ; Gastroscopy ; Humans ; Keratins ; Kidney ; Lung ; Male ; Neck ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Skin ; Stomach ; Thoracic Wall ; Thorax

BACKGROUND: Cathepsin D, an aspartic lysosomal proteinase, is believed to be involved in local invasion and metastasis of tumor cells by its proteolytic activity and has been described to be associated with tumor progression and prognosis in some human malignancies including breast cancer. But, its prognostic value for human lung cancer remains to be determined. The purpose of this study is to determine clinicopathological and prognostic significance of cathepsin D expression in non-small cell lung cancer. METHOD: Using a polyclonal antibody, immunohistochemical analysis of cathepsin D was performed on paraffin embedded sections of tumors obtained surgically from 54 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (37 squamous cell carcinoma, 14 adenocarcinoma, 2 large cell carcinoma, and 1 undifferentiated carcinoma). RESULTS: Eighteen patients (33.3%) showed positive immunoreactivities of cathepsin D in tumor cells. No significant correlation of cathepsin D expression in tumor cells was found in p-stage (surgical-pathologic stage), tumor size, tumor factor, nodal involvement, and differentiation. Of 54 patients, 29 (53.7%) patients showed moderate to massive cathepsin D-positive stromal cells within the tumor tissues, while the rest (46.3%) showed few cathepsin D-positive stromal cells within the tumor tissues. Cathepsin D expression n stromal cells was significantly associated with p-stage in non-small cell lung cancer (p=0.031). No significant correlation of the degree of cathepsin D-positive stromal cells was found in tumor size, T-factor, nodal involvement, differentiation. Cathepsin D expression status in tumor cells and stromal cells was not significantly associated with prognosis expressed by survival rate. The results of multivariate analyses of variables possibly associated with progonosis showed that nodal involvement was the only independent prognostic factor in all patients. CONCLUSION: Cathepsin D expression in stromal cells was significantly associated with p-stage in non-small cell lung cancer. However, it was not related to other clinicopathologic features and prognosis, and Cathepsin D expression in tumor was not related to p-stage and prognosis.
Adenocarcinoma ; Breast Neoplasms ; Carcinoma, Large Cell ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cathepsin D* ; Cathepsins* ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paraffin ; Prognosis* ; Stromal Cells ; Survival Rate