A 49-year-old woman with a long history of a subcutaneous mass on the dorsal side of her 4th finger of the right hand visited a dermatologist because of slight enlargement of the mass. Her past medical history was notable only for a mitral valvuloplasty performed 20 years earlier. Physical examination revealed a small, round, firm subcutaneous mass on the dorsal side of her proximal interphalangeal joint of the right 4th finger. The mass was immobile and nontender and its overlying skin was intact. An excisional biopsy was done for the patient and the specimen was sent for pathologic evaluation. On microscopic examination, the final diagnosis of plexiform schwannoma was made for the lesion. The aim of this publication is to report a rare case of plexiform schwannoma of the soft tissue and a literature review to provide a better understanding about its characteristics including epidemiologic factors and pathologic evaluation.
To investigate whether excision repair cross complementing-group1 (ERCC1) expression status could serve as a bio-predictor of response to platinum-based induction chemotherapy for head and neck cancers (HNCs) patients with a diagnosis of epithelial HNC were studied retrospectively. Paraffin embedded tumor samples of the patients were analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to determine ERCC1 expression status and its correlation with response to platinum-based induction chemotherapy was investigated. Of 44 included patients, 33 were male (75%) and 11 were female (25%) with a mean age of 53 years. Some 36% of patients whose tumor samples had high ERCC1 expression showed no response to induction chemotherapy. The value for patients with low ERCC1 expression was 9% and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.03). The ERCC1 expression state did not significantly vary between patient groups according to sex, age, primary tumor site, and tumor and node stage. Our study indicates that ERCC1 expression status detected by RT-PCR might serve as a bio-predictor of response to platinum-based induction chemotherapy for epithelial HNCs.
A 7-month-old boy was admitted with generalised blisters to the paediatric emergency room. The lesions had first developed on the head and neck, then rapidly spread to the trunk and extremities (figure 1). The patient was ill but not toxic or febrile.
Figure 1
Multiple tense vesicles and haemorrhagic bullae developed on the peau d'orange-like skin on the face and scalp (A) and trunk (B).
Initially bullous impetigo was suspected, and …
Background:: Germ cell tumors are neoplasms that originate from multi potential germ cells and can be intra or extra gonadal. According to pathologic classification, they have different subtypes. They account for 3% of pediatric malignancies and most commonly happen in children before the age of 15 years old. Epidemiologic evidence about pediatric germ cell tumors is scant in our region. Objectives:: The aim of current study was to determine demographic characteristics, recurrence and survival rate of germ cell tumor patients under the age of 21 years. Patients and Methods:: During a 10-year period (1996 - 2006), 106 patients under the age of 21 years suffering from germ cell tumor were admitted to our centers. We extracted the data needed for our study from patientsâ medical records in the hospitals. Results:: Thirty seven boys and 69 girls with a mean age of 8.4 ± 7.8 years were included. Most tumors were diagnosed before the age of one year (37%). The most common pathologic subtype was mature teratoma (44%). Ovary (35%) was the most common primary site. Surgery plus chemotherapy were used to treat 54 patients and BEP was the most common chemotherapy regimen. Metastasis and recurrent tumor were seen in 22% and 8% of cases, respectively. Four-year overall survival was 89%. Conclusions:: Our study showed that demographic characteristics of GCT patients in our population are similar to patients of other geographic regions in the world. Primary tumor site, histologic subtype and metastasis were significant prognostic factors for survival.
Introduction: We present a rare case of breast papillary carcinoma associated with intracystic component in a woman with a long history of autoimmune hypothyroidism and multiple sclerosis. Case Presentation: The patient was a 59-year-old woman presented with complaints of pain and swelling in her right breast. She was a known case of autoimmune hypothyroidism since 20 years and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis since 13 years ago. She had received frequent interferon, corticosteroid and cytotoxic therapy for her multiple sclerosis. On imaging studies, there were multiple large cystic-solid lesions in the right breast and with presumptive diagnosis of infectious collection or phyllodes tumor, she finally underwent simple mastectomy. On gross pathological evaluation, a large multi-loculated cyst filled with blood clots and necrotic debris was identified. In serial sections, a 7 cm solid tumoral mass with papillary projections protruding into the cyst cavity was seen. Although the gross appearance of the lesion resembled an angiosarcoma accompanied by cystic hemorrhagic necrosis, after the microscopic evaluation of the specimen, papillary breast carcinoma associated with intracyctic component was finally diagnosed. Conclusions: The aim of this study was to describe a rare variant of invasive breast cancer presenting with a large solid-cyctic mass in a woman with long standing autoimmune disorders.
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