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Melanin production in a medullary thyroid carcinoma
Author(s) -
Marcus Joseph N.,
Dise Craig A.,
Livolsi Virginia A.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19820615)49:12<2518::aid-cncr2820491219>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - melanosome , calcitonin , pathology , melanin , thyroid , phenotype , medullary carcinoma , thyroid carcinoma , medullary cavity , melanocyte , neural crest , medicine , biology , cancer research , melanoma , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , gene , embryo
Melanin production by a medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is reported and discussed. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells contained calcitonin; by electron microscopy, they bore numerous, heterogeneous granules similar to those described previously in MTCs. One small focus of tumor was pigmented. Here, melanosomes in different stages of maturation were found in dendritic cells that ramified among granule‐bearing cells. The remarkable phenotypic divergence in this solitary, nongerm cell neoplasm is unusual but not so surprising in light of the APUD nature and neural crest origin of both the melanocyte and the thyroid C cell, which gives rise to MTC. The authors view the calcitonin and melanosome phenotypes as closely related tumor clones evolving from a common precursor neoplastic cell. This unique “experiment of nature” adds to the set of rare human tumors that make melanin “ectopically”.