The Pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma(PXA) is considered as a special subgroup of gliomas because of its distinctive characteristics: onset in young subject; predilection for the temopral or parietal lobe and a superficial location; frequent appearance as a yellow encapsulated mass with a grossly visible tumor-associated cyst; marked histological pleomorphism; little or no mitosis and no necrosis; presence of a rich reticulin network; and demonstrable GFAP in many of the fusiform and giant cells; most importantly, the relatively favorable prognosis despite plemorphism and bizzare giant cells in the microscopic picture. The objective of this report is to add one more case of pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma to the medical literature.

No abstract available.
Craniocerebral Trauma* ; Head* ; Perfusion* ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*

A case of pineoblastoma in a 28-year-old male is reported. A computerized tomography showed hydrocephalus and a mass in the pineal region. Histologically, the tumor is composed of regular, patternless aggregates of small round undifferentiated cells, resembling medulloblastoma-retinoblastoma group. Immunohistochemical reactivity of the neoplastic cells for neuron specific enolase and synaptophysin demonstrates neuronal differentiation. The patient underwent partial resection of the mass followed by radiotherapy. The patient had no cerebrospinal dissemination at 8 month follow-up. The pineoblastoma is a highly malignant neoplasm, one of the class of primitive neuroectodermnal tumors. The tumor is a very rare pineal parenchymal meoplasms, representing an incidence of less than 0.1% of intracranial tumors. This is the first case of pineoblastoma reported in Korea. In this report the divergent differentiation of the tumor is discussed, along with review of literatures.
Male ; Humans ; Incidence

A case of pineoblastoma in a 28-year-old male is reported. A computerized tomography showed hydrocephalus and a mass in the pineal region. Histologically, the tumor is composed of regular, patternless aggregates of small round undifferentiated cells, resembling medulloblastoma-retinoblastoma group. Immunohistochemical reactivity of the neoplastic cells for neuron specific enolase and synaptophysin demonstrates neuronal differentiation. The patient underwent partial resection of the mass followed by radiotherapy. The patient had no cerebrospinal dissemination at 8 month follow-up. The pineoblastoma is a highly malignant neoplasm, one of the class of primitive neuroectodermnal tumors. The tumor is a very rare pineal parenchymal meoplasms, representing an incidence of less than 0.1% of intracranial tumors. This is the first case of pineoblastoma reported in Korea. In this report the divergent differentiation of the tumor is discussed, along with review of literatures.
Male ; Humans ; Incidence

The authors report a case of malignant teratoma in a 3-year-old girl who suffered from occipital headache and vomiting for about 2 months. The tumor occupied left cerebellopontine angle resulting in a moderate degree of hydorcephalus. Histologically, the tumor consisted mainly of neuroepithelial tissues showing varying degrees of differentiation, with areas of epidermis, mature fat tissue, connective tissue, gastrointestinal glands and smooth muscle bundles containing ganglions. Also noted are groups pf polygonal or spindle cells representing immature mesodermal tissue. In contrast to two malignant intracranial teratomas previously reported in Korean literatures, this case is characterized by the presence of predominent neuroepithelial components and by uncommon tumor location, the posterior fossa far from middle line of the body.

In 56 breast cancer tissues (infiltrating ductal carcinoma) with a clinical follow-up period of more than 5 years, positivity of estrogen receptor(ER) by enzyme immunoassay and expressions of bcl-2 and p53 oncoproteins by immunohistochemistry were evaluated. The purposes of this study were to determine prevalence of bcl-2 and p53 in breast cancer, the interrelationship between expression of the proteins and estrogen receptor, correlation between histologic grade and the expression of the tumor-related oncogenes, and to explore the biologic bahavior of breast cancer (lymph node metastasis, recurrence rate, and survival) via expression of bcl-2 and p53. Twelve of 56 (21.4%) carcinomas were bcl-2 positive, and seventeen (30.4%) were p53- positive. Eleven of 12 bcl-2 positive tumors (91.7%) were ER-positive, and bcl-2 expression was significantly associated with ER-positivity(P=0.043). Seven of 36 ER-positive tumors (12.5%) were p53 positive, and p53 expression was inversely associated with ER-positivity(P=0.006) significantly. The bcl-2 protein expression showed a significant relationship to low histologic grade of tumor (P=0.0002), and an almost significant relationship to lower recurrence rate (P=0.09). The p53 protein expression showed a significant relationship to high histologic grade of tumor (P=0.002) and an almost significant relationship to lymph node metastasis (P=0.09). Also an almost inverse relationship between bcl-2 and p53 was demonstrated (P=0.057). The bcl-2 expression had a tendency to be associated with longer patient survival(P= 0.09), but p53 immunoreaction was found not to be associated with shorter patient survival(P=0.16). These results provide further evidence that higher incidence of bcl-2 expression is correlated with higher incidence of ER and lower grade of tumor, while p53 expression is correlated with lower incidence of ER and higher grade of tumor. In conclusion, although the biologic function of bcl-2 protein is not yet well understood in breast cancer, our results suggest that bcl-2 and p53 oncoproteins might play significant roles in estrogen receptor and development of breast cancer. But their prognostic significance could not be determined; our results are 'not significant' but 'almost significant'. Thus, contribution of bcl-2 and p53 immunohistochemical phenotyping of breast cancer with ER to the clinical management need verification in larger series.
Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Breast Neoplasms

No abstract available.
Child* ; Epidemiologic Studies* ; Gastroenteritis* ; Humans ; Rotavirus*

Cervical adenocarcinoma represents approximately 3-6% of the uterine cervical neoplasms. Recently, its relative incidence tends to be increased in contrast to squamous cell carcinoma. Sixty nine cases from 1985 to 1990 diagonsed as adenocarcinoma of the cervix by radical or total hysterectomy were analyzed to know their histopathological characteristics and related prognostic factors. The results wer as follows. (1) The age distribution ranged from 24 to 60 years and the mean age was 44 years and 47 years in adenocarcinoma in situ and invasive adenocarcinoma, respectively. Staging by FIGO classification showed the range from stage 0 to IIb, of which 63.8% was stage Ib. (2) Cases were composed of 7 cases of adenocarcinoma in situ(10%) and 62 cases of invasive adenocarcinomas(90%). The latter included 16 cases of adenosquamous carcinoma and 46 cases of pure adenocarcinoma which showed endocervical, endometrioid, clear cell, minimal deviation adenocarcinoma subtypes. The most frequent subtype was endocervical adenocarcinoma(51%) and the endometrioid subtype showed slightly higher incidence rate(13%) in comparison to the previous studies. (3) Coexistent squamous lesions ranging from mild dysplasia to invasive carcinoma were found in 4 out of 7 cases(57%) of adenocarcinoma in situ and 18 out of 62 cases(29%) of invasive adenocarcinoma. Severe dysplasia and carcinoma in situ comprised most(77%) of them. (4) Analyses of histopathological and clinical characteristics of adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix revealed positive correlations between tumor size or mucin leakage and depth of invasion. The prognostic factors in relation to lymph node metastasis were considered to be th stage of disease, the size of tumor, mucin leakage in the stroma, and histologic subtypes.
Incidence ; Adenocarcinoma ; Neoplasm Metastasis

We examined the expressions of CD44 splice variants (v4/5, v6), alpha-smooth muscle actin, nm23 to evaluate their roles as prognostic factors in 70 cases of uterine cervical carcinoma (stage IB to IIB) who were surgically treated from January 1989 to June 1990 with a clinical follow-up of a minimum of 5 years. The expression was examined by an immunohistochemical method using archival formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue. In the 70 cases, 61 cases were squamous cell carcinoma and 9 cases were adenocarcinoma. CD44v4/5, CD44v6, alpha-smooth muscle actin, and nm23 were detected in 41.4%, 70%, 100%, and 74.3% of tumor samples, respectively. CD44 splice variants and nm23 showed membrane and cytoplasmic staining of tumor cells, respectively. The expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin showed cytoplasmic staining confined to stromal cells and was classified into three grades by the extent in stromal cells: with less than 10% of stromal cells; 32.9%, 10-50% of stromal cells; 40.0%, more than 50%; 27.1%. These expressions were not correlated with histologic types, lymph node involvement, recurrence, and grades of tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL). But CD44v4/5 had significantly inverse correlation with TIL (p=0.049). The expression of CD44v4/5 was significantly correlated with that of CD44v6 (p=0.05), and that of alpha-smooth muscle actin was inversely correlated with that of nm23 (p=0.049). In conclusion, in FIGO IB-IIB uterine cervical carcinoma CD44 variants, nm23, and SMA show high prevalence, however, with little prognostic significance assessed by recurrence and lymph node metastasis.
Actins* ; Adenocarcinoma ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cytoplasm ; Follow-Up Studies ; Formaldehyde ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphocytes ; Membranes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paraffin ; Prevalence ; Recurrence ; Stromal Cells ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*

Adenosquamous carcinoma originating in the stomach is relatively rare, and the occurrence of such tumor is interesting with respect to its histogenesis. We describe three cases of gastric adenosquamous carcinoma in a 39-year-old man, a 58-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man. They were grossly classified as Borrmann type III or II, revealing no difference from usual advanced gastric adenocarcinomas. Microscopically three cases showed well or moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma component occupying large areas of the tumors. Areas of transition from glandular to squamous epithelium were frequently observed. Metastatic foci in the regional lymph nodes also were consisted of two elements. On immunohistochemical study, CEA immunoreactivity was found not only in adenocarcinoma component but also in squamous cell components, in comparison to cytokeratin which was detected only in squamous areas. The immunohistochemical findings of CEA reactivity in both components, and the presence of microscopic transitional zones support the hypothesis of squamous metaplasia occurring in an already existing adenocarcinoma in the development of adenosquamous carcinoma of the stomach.
Female ; Male ; Humans ; Adenocarcinoma ; Neoplasm Metastasis