General and Systemic Histopathology, C601&C602
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In this picture of the
tissue, you can see how greatly expanded the lamina propria and muscular
layers are. The type of cancer represented here is rather peculiar.
There may not be any evidence on the mucosal surface, yet there will be
extensive infiltration of the wall. The cells do not, as a rule,
organize themselves into gland-like structures, rather the diagnosis of
adenocarcinoma is made by seeing the large intracellular mucin vacuole
in each cell. See this slide with the virtual microscope.
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The changes here are subtle. The tumor is not on the mucosal surface, but down in the muscle and lamina propria. It may look like an inflammatory infiltrate spread around between the bundles of muscle cells. Look for the hallmark features of malignancy in the cytology of the cells. Only a few really diagnostic signet ring cells will be present. These cells will have a large vacuole off-setting the nucleus, thereby giving the "signet" ring appearance. |