Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0035412 (rhabdomyosarcoma)
 6,156 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Rhabdomyosarcoma and other small round-cell neoplasms of infancy and childhood frequently involve the bone marrow. An unusual clinical presentation of diffuse bone marrow involvement as the sole manifestation of the disease represents a difficult diagnostic challenge. We report the case of an 18-year-old boy presenting with lower back pain, sternum tenderness, anemia, thrombocytopenia, leukoerythroblastic blood film, hypercalcemia, and renal failure. No solid tumor was found. A diagnosis of rhabdomyoblastic bone marrow metastatic involvement was initially suggested by the morphological picture, and later confirmed by the ultrastructural findings. Hypercalcemia and renal failure were controlled, initially, with furosemide and calcitonin. The patient was treated with intensive chemotherapy, including vincristine, actinomycin D, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin. A remission was achieved, lasting 5 months until relapse.
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PMID:Rhabdomyosarcoma presenting with diffuse bone marrow involvement, hypercalcemia and renal failure. 335 35

Anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid gland (ACT) is a highly malignant tumor that is almost invariably associated with a fatal outcome. It demonstrates a variety of peculiar histological features, with squamoid, giant cell and spindle cell growth patterns. The spindle cell variant of ACT is usually indistinguishable from a true sarcoma and it can simulate fibrosarcoma, malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH), hemangiopericytoma and angiosarcoma or rhabdomyosarcoma. Although a rhabdomyosarcomatous appearance has sometimes been mentioned in the literature, true skeletal muscle differentiation has never been consistently proved. We report two cases of ACT with rhabdomyosarcomatous differentiation, as demonstrated by means of immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy. Both cases disclosed a very similar histological appearance, with a main population of small, pleomorphic, round-to-oval cells arranged in a storiform pattern, admixed with scattered pleomorphic giant cells, an image similar to that of the usual type of MFH. Stains for epithelial markers showed only few, scattered, weakly positive cells. Thyroglobulin and calcitonin were negative in tumor cells in both cases. On the contrary, positivity to vimentin was strong and generalized. Immunomarkers of muscular differentiation showed a consistent positivity. At the ultrastructural level, the cells disclosed the same spindle and pleomorphic morphology, with large, bizarre nuclei and cytoplasm with abundant mitochondria, rough endoplasmic reticulum, secretory granules and lipid droplets. There were also cells with wide cytoplasm filled with filamentous material, either of actin or myosin, as well as Z-band material. In conclusion, the cases reported here show a clear-cut rhabdomyosarcomatous differentiation of ACT, confirmed both immunohistochemically and ultrastructurally, a feature not previously reported in the literature. These findings may contribute to the broadening of the differentiation spectrum of this unusual neoplasm.
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PMID:Anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid with rhabdomyosarcomatous differentiation: a report of two cases. 1551 65