RESUMO
Three men and 2 women with ages ranging from 37 to 70 years, clinically and histologically confirmed solitary, palpable metastatic cancers to the thyroid (SMCT) and preoperative cytologic investigation of their thyroid lesions by fine-needle aspiration (FNA), were reviewed. Four patients were known to have a solid cancer treated by radical surgery 1 to 4 years prior [1 bronchogenic squamous cell carcinoma, 1 parotid adenoid cystic carcinoma, 1 renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and 1 cutaneous melanoma], and 1 patient had no past history of cancer. Direct smears prepared from the patients' thyroid FNAs were fixed in 95% ethanol and stained with the Papanicolaou method. In 3 cases, immunostaining of the aspirated tumor cells with thyroglobulin antibody was performed, and in 1 case an aspiration smear was stained with commercial HMB-45 antibody. A correct cytodiagnosis of metastatic cancer to the thyroid was made in all 5 cases. In 1 patient the thyroid FNA revealed a metastatic RCC that led to the discovery of a clinically occult RCC. All 5 patients died of metastatic disease 27 to 40 months after surgical resection of their SMCTs.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Primary esophageal rhabdomyosarcoma (PER) is a very rare neoplasm with only 15 cases reported in the literature. Of those, only 1 case underwent a preoperative cytologic evaluation. We report a case of PER with diagnosis by imprint cytology. CASE: A 55-year-old woman presented with dysphagia of 2 months' duration associated with fatigue and weight loss. Clinical and diagnostic imaging investigations revealed a large, submucosal mass lesion located in the lower part of the esophagus. A bite biopsy of the esophageal mass was performed under esophagoscopy. Two imprint smears were made from the biopsied tissue fragment and stained with the May-Grünwald-Giemsa method. The smears revealed abundant, pleomorphic, malignant cells with basophilic cytoplasm. Some spindle-shaped cancer cells showed intracytoplasmic cross-striations, indicating a pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma, as confirmed by histologic and immunohistochemical studies of the biopsied tumor tissue and resected tumor. CONCLUSION: The presence of pleomorphic malignant cells with intracytoplasmic cross striations is a characteristic feature of pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma.