title: Anaplastic small cell (oat cell) carcinoma of the tonsils: report of two cases.
abstract: Two cases of anaplastic small cell (oat cell) carcinoma of the tonsils are presented. In the first, cervical metastases preceded the manifestation of the primary tumour by 2 years. In case 2 the tonsillar carcinoma was accompanied by a bronchial tumour of the same histological type and by cervical and axillary metastases. Positive Grimelius stain, positive immunohistochemical staining for chromogranin A and neurone-specific enolase and the presence, in case 1, of membrane-bound granules indicate that these tumours display many similarities with neuroendocrine carcinomas even if they originate from pluripotential ductal cells of tonsillar minor salivary glands and not from Kulchitsky-like cells.
authors: Department of Pathology, Institut Jules Bordet, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Heimann
authors: M F
authors: MF
authors: Dehou
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Lentrebecq
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Faverly
authors: M L
authors: ML
authors: Simonet
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Dor
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Chanoine
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D014067:Tonsillar Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure