食管小细胞癌的临床病理及免疫组织化学研究

Small cell carcinomas of esophagus:a clinicopathological and immunohistochemical study

AIM: To observe the clinical and pathological characteristics of small cell carcinoma (SmC) of the esophagus and to investigate its possible tissue origin. METHODS: Six cases (4 males and 2 females) of small cell esophageal carcinoma were retrospectively studied by light microscopy after Haematoxylin and Eosin (HE), histochemical and immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: The tumors showed ulcer formation in 5 cases and fungiform in 1 case. Microscopically, two cases were of the pure small cell type, and four were squama cell carcinoma (SqC). Immunohistochemistry revealed all The positive rates were all 100% for cytokeratin (CK), epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and neuron specific eno-lase (NSE), and 83% and 50% for synaptophysin and chromogranin A (CgA) respectively. The expression of P53 protein and ki-67 nuclear antigen (Ki-67) were 100% and 83.3% respectively. CONCLUSION: The esophageal SmC is a rare tumor with high malignancy and has the potential to differentiate to epithelium and neuroendocrine tissues. It originates probably from multipotential primitive stem cells in the esophageal mucus.