Tumor cell phagocytosis. Its occurrence in a patient with medulloblastoma.
Phagocytosis was observed in tumor cells from a metastatic medulloblastoma to the bone marrow. Erythrocytes and leukocytes were seen in the cytoplasm of the tumor cells. Another abnormal finding was self-phagocytosis, in which tumor cells engulfed one another. The mechanism of tumor phagocytosis is not yet clearly understood. Only a few cases of erythrophagocytosis by epithelial tumor cells have been reported in the literature. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a medulloblastoma with hematophagocytosis.
D000328:Adult; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D001855:Bone Marrow Diseases / Q000473:pathology; D002528:Cerebellar Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008527:Medulloblastoma / Q000473:pathology*; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D010587:Phagocytosis