Goblet cell carcinoid: Case report

The mixt endocrine-exocrine carcinoma of the appendix,being a rare tumor, makes up a very little part of all gastrointestinalsystem tumors. These tumors are thought tobe the intermediary tumors taking place between adenocarcinomasand endocrine tumors. Generally they areseen in the 5th -6th decades equally in males and females.Being very characteristic, the histomorphological pictureof goblet cell carcinoid consists of atypical epithelial cellswith conspicuous nucleoli that make small abortive glandsdemonstrating scattered nests under surface epitheliumand containing Goblet cells. The tumor exhibits transmuralspread producing mucin pools designating positiveimmunoreaction histochemically with musicarmenstain. In addition to CEA and keratin expressions, thereis neuroendocrine differentiation that may be illustratedboth immunohistochemically and ultrastructurally. In ourcase, under the appendix epithelium we determined atumor that was formed by gland structures lined by mucinousepithelial cells with conspicuous nucleoli, growingforward to the muscle layer and seeming invasive. Weestablished that the tumor expressed PanCK, synaptophysin,chromogranin and CEA in immunohistochemicalstudy and stained positively with PAS, PAS-AB andmusicarmen in histochemical study. We considered thecase as goblet cell carcinoid when clinical, histopathological,histochemical and immunohistochemical data wereassessed together. In the time interval 2 years after theoperation, any recurrence and/or metastase was not determined.Key words: Goblet cell carcinoid, CEA, chromogranin A,PAS-AB, musicarmen