J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 88(9): 1117-1120, 1987

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Report on the annual meeting

A CYTOMETRICAL STUDY OF MALIGNANT TUMORS IN CHILDREN
ーCYTOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PROGNOSISー

Seventy-six neuroblastomas, 46 Wilms' tumors, and 36 primary liver carcinomas in children were investigated by quantitative cytologic measurements in resected or autopsy cases, utilyzing an image analyzing computer system. Embryonic tumors in childhood malignancies showed strikingly characteristic features in the morphology ; that is much smaller size in nuclear and cell area, comparatively uniform pattern, and immature morphology rather than undifferentiated one. A main difference between neuroblastoma and the other pediatric tumors was that the former showed much larger change in the nuclear size by age. The nuclear size of tumor cells in pediatric patients was closely correlated with the prognosis, with favorable prognosis in the smaller size group. The immature cytomorphologic features that show few variations from the normal fetal or embryonal cell, was a striking characteristics in the cancer of children. It was suggested that the high sensitivity for chemotherapy in the pediatric tumors, was due to these morphologic features, and that rapid growth of the pediatric tumor was due to the nature of normal fetal or embryonic tissue.

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