Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine

Case Report

Choriocarcinoma of the Colon.: Youn Mee Kim, Mee Youn Cho, Soon Won Hong, Soon Hee Jung; Korean J Pathol. 1997;31(8):794-797.

Abstract PDF: Choriocarcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract is rare. Among them, that of the stomach is the most common. Six cases of choriocarcinoma of the colon were found in the review of the literature. All of these previously reported cases had multiple metastatic foci in the liver, lung, lymph nodes and the prognosis seemed to be very poor. Therefore we think that choriocarcinoma of the colon should be distinguished from conventional adenocarcinoma. A 66-year old female patient, described in this case, was operated on under the impression she was suffering from acute appendicitis. The resected ascending colon revealed extensive hemorrhagic necrosis and perforation with fibrous adhesion in the cecum. On the cut section, the mural tumorous thickening was not definite. Histologically, the tumor showed a focus of typical adenocarcinoma arising from glandular epithelial cells, which were transformed into highly anaplastic tumor cells. There were frequent vascular invasions of tumor cells, similar to syncytiotrophoblasts. In the immunohistochemical stains, both glandular and highly anaplastic tumor cells reacted with cytokeratin. The glandular cells were also reactive for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and anaplastic tumor cells for human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). This is the first report of choriocarcinoma of the colon in Korea. We describe this case with a review of the literature.

Original Article

Primary Undifferentiated Carcinoma of the Endometrium with Small Cell and Trophoblastic Differentiation.: Chul Hwan Kim, Seoung Hye Park, In Sun Kim, Seung Yong Paik; Korean J Pathol. 1990;24(1):58-64.

Abstract PDF: This report describes a very rare case of primary undifferentiated carcinoma of the endometrium with small cell and trophoblastic differentiation. The patient was 54-year-old woman with complaints of vaginal bleeding and palpable lower abdominal mass. The light microscopic findings revealed predominantly small cells with round nuclei, spindle cells, and large cells with hyperchromatic bizarre nuclei. Foci of syncytiotrophoblastic giant cells are scattered, especially in the hemorrhagic areas. Immunohistochemical stainging for neuron specific enolase and beta-hCG showed positive reactions to small cells and syncytiotrophoblastic giant cells, respectively. Argentaffin and argyrophil stains, however, showed negative reactions to small cells. The histogenesis of small cell undifferentiated carcinoma of the endometrium remains unclear; however, it may arise from epithelial precursors instead of neuroendocrine cells, and syncytiotrophoblastic cells may be differentiated or dedifferentiated from the undifferentiated carcinoma cells.

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