[Galanin immunoreactivity in a laryngeal paraganglioma: case report and literature review]

The authors describe a case of laryngeal paraganglioma (LP) occurring in a 57-year-old-woman. To date, 70 cases have been described in the literature. It is benign and recurrences are infrequent. The differential diagnosis with typical and atypical carcinoids, hemangiopericytomas, alveolar soft-part sarcomas, medullary thyroid carcinomas, malignant melanomas and metastatic renal cell carcinomas is supported by immunohistochemistry. Moreover, this tumor shows the immunohistochemical expression of galanin, a variably expressed marker of paragangliomas that it is not expressed in carcinoid tumors. Nevertheless, our observations militate against its role as a solitary marker but advocate its use in conjunction with other antibodies for the differential diagnosis of neuroendocrine neoplasms of larynx.