A scanning and transmission electron microscopic study on an unusual pelvic tumor a case report

A portion of a pelvic mass removed from a 38-year-old female, read out on frozen section as a papillary carcinoma with psammoma bodies, was submitted to the EM lab for routine processing. Transmission electron microscopy reveals the tumor mass to be composed of cuboidal and columnar epithelial cells with short apical microvilli and numerous sites of cellular attachments. That portion of the tumor processed for scanning electron microscopy, showed cells similar to those described above but an additional cell line containing numerous cilia were found scattered randomly throughout the entire sample. This finding prompted additional study of the original light and transmission samples to determine the nature of this neoplasm. Gross, microscopic, transmission and scanning micrographs will be presented to illustrate the merits of using multiple microscopic capabilities in the differential diagnosis of unusual tumors.