Lauriola L, Erlandson R A, Rosai J
Department of Pathologic Anatomy, Catholic University Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.
Am J Surg Pathol. 1998 Sep;22(9):1059-66. doi: 10.1097/00000478-199809000-00003.
Immunohistochemical evidence of neuroendocrine differentiation in the form of reactivity for synaptophysin, neuron-specific enolase, and/or chromogranin was found in 11 of 19 (58%) thymic carcinomas having the typical morphologic features of that tumor type. Four of these 19 cases were studied ultrastructurally, and neuroendocrine-type cytoplasmic dense-core granules were found in two. In contrast, 84 thymomas were negative for these markers, except for a focal immunoreactivity for neuron-specific enolase in areas of medullary differentiation in half of the lymphocyte-rich tumors. The results of this study show that in the thymus, similar to most other organs, neuroendocrine differentiation is not limited to tumors with an identifiable neuroendocrine appearance in hematoxylin-eosin-stained slides, such as carcinoid tumor and small cell carcinoma, but rather that it represents a common event shared by the major types of malignant epithelial tumors of that organ.
在19例具有该肿瘤类型典型形态特征的胸腺癌中，有11例（58%）发现了神经内分泌分化的免疫组织化学证据，表现为对突触素、神经元特异性烯醇化酶和/或嗜铬粒蛋白呈反应性。对这19例中的4例进行了超微结构研究，其中2例发现了神经内分泌型胞质致密核心颗粒。相比之下，84例胸腺瘤对这些标志物呈阴性，除了在半数富含淋巴细胞的肿瘤中，在髓质分化区域对神经元特异性烯醇化酶有局灶性免疫反应性。本研究结果表明，在胸腺中，与大多数其他器官一样，神经内分泌分化并不局限于苏木精-伊红染色切片中具有可识别神经内分泌外观的肿瘤，如类癌肿瘤和小细胞癌，而是代表该器官主要类型的恶性上皮性肿瘤共有的常见现象。
