Singhal Niti, Handa Uma, Bansal Cherry, Mohan Harsh
Department of Pathology, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector-32 B, Chandigarh 160040, India.
Diagn Cytopathol. 2011 Aug;39(8):553-5. doi: 10.1002/dc.21421. Epub 2010 Oct 14.
Cell cannibalism is defined as the ability of a cell to phagocytose another cell. Malignant tumor cells may develop phagocytic property and demonstrate phagocytosis of own cells or cells of other series like neutrophils and lymphocytes. We report 11 cases in which the tumor cells showed evidence of neutrophil phagocytosis/emperipolesis on FNAC smears. Cases of malignancies diagnosed on FNA over a period of 1 year were retrieved, and smears were examined for neutrophil phagocytosis by tumor cells. These cases were classified according to type and differentiation of malignancy. The cytomorphological features and background inflammation were also studied at both primary and metastatic site. Of 362 malignant cases diagnosed on FNA smears, in 11 cases (3.09%), tumor cells showed neutrophil phagocytosis. The background showed increase in polymorphs in all cases. All the cases were associated with metastasis at presentation and were high-grade tumors cytologically. There were three cases of anaplastic carcinoma, two cases of adenocarcinoma, two cases of carcinoma breast, two cases of anaplastic non-Hodgkins lymphoma, one case each of squamous cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma from larynx and lung, respectively. Phagocytic activity by tumor cells is uncommon and usually seen in high-grade/poorly differentiated malignancies. It is frequently associated with metastatic disease. On cytology smears, true phagocytosis of neutrophils by tumor cells has to be distinguished from superimposed inflammatory cells from the background. The tumor cells also need to be distinguished from histiocytes displaying phagocytosis.
细胞吞噬作用被定义为一个细胞吞噬另一个细胞的能力。恶性肿瘤细胞可能会产生吞噬特性，并表现出对自身细胞或其他系列细胞（如中性粒细胞和淋巴细胞）的吞噬作用。我们报告了11例肿瘤细胞在细针穿刺抽吸活检（FNAC）涂片上显示有中性粒细胞吞噬/血细胞入胞现象的病例。检索了在1年时间内通过FNA诊断的恶性肿瘤病例，并检查涂片以观察肿瘤细胞的中性粒细胞吞噬情况。这些病例根据恶性肿瘤的类型和分化程度进行分类。还对原发部位和转移部位的细胞形态学特征及背景炎症进行了研究。在FNA涂片诊断的362例恶性病例中，有11例（3.09%）肿瘤细胞显示有中性粒细胞吞噬现象。所有病例的背景均显示多形核白细胞增多。所有病例在就诊时均伴有转移，细胞学检查为高级别肿瘤。其中有3例间变性癌，2例腺癌，2例乳腺癌，2例间变性非霍奇金淋巴瘤，分别有1例喉鳞状细胞癌和肺小细胞癌。肿瘤细胞的吞噬活性并不常见，通常见于高级别/低分化恶性肿瘤。它常与转移性疾病相关。在细胞学涂片上，必须将肿瘤细胞对中性粒细胞的真正吞噬与背景中叠加的炎性细胞区分开来。肿瘤细胞还需要与显示吞噬作用的组织细胞区分开来。
