Items tagged “oncology”

Second branchial cleft cysts are a cystic dilatation of the remnant of the 2nd branchial apparatus, and along with 2nd branchial fistulae and sinuses accounts for 95% of all branchial cleft anomalies. Clinical presentation Although a congenital abnormality, they tend to present in early adulth...

Adrenal adenomas are the most common adrenal mass lesion and are often found incidentally during abdominal imaging for other reasons. In all cases, but especially in the setting of known current or previous malignancy, adrenal adenomas need to be distinguished from adrenal metastases or other ad...

Ameloblastomas are locally aggressive benign tumours that arise from the mandible, or, less commonly, from the maxilla. Usually present as a slowly but continuously growing hard painless lesion near the angle of the mandible in the 3rd to 5th decades of life, which can be severely disfiguring if...

Musculoskeletal angiosarcomas, (along with haemangiopericytomas and haemangioendotheliomas) are tumours that arise from vascular structures. They are typically difficult to distinguish from one another on imaging alone. Angiosarcomas, are the most aggressive of the three, frequently having meta...

An anterosuperior mediastinal mass can be caused by neoplastic and non-neoplastic pathology. As their name suggests, they are confined to the anterior mediastinum, that portion of the mediastinum anterior to the pericardium and below the level of the clavicles.  The differential diagnosis for a...

Normal bone marrow is divided into red and yellow marrow, a distinction made on the grounds of how much fat it contains. Gross anatomy Red marrow is composed of: haematopoietic cells supporting stroma reticulum (phagocytes and undifferentiated progenitor cells) scattered fat cells a rich ...

Common brain tumours in infancy (i.e. under one year of age) are quite different from those of brain tumours in adulthood. Most are located in the supratentorial region (~65%) and they carry a poor prognosis. The frequency of these tumours varies according to studies, but the most common brain ...

Benign and malignant characteristics of breast lesions at ultrasound allow the classification as either malignant, intermediate or benign based on work published by Stavros et al. in 1995. Radiographic features Ultrasound Malignant characteristics (with positive predictive values) sonographi...

Breast lymphoma refers to involvement of the breast with lymphoma and may be primary or secondary. Epidemiology Both primary and secondary breast lymphoma are rare accounting for ~ 0.5% (range 0.3-1.1%) of all breast malignancies. Clinical presentation Breast lymphoma may present either as a...

Cardiac myxomas, although uncommon are one of the commonest primary cardiac tumours and account for ~50% primary benign cardiac tumours.  Epidemiology Cardiac myxomas are the most common primary cardiac tumour in adults but are relatively infrequent in childhood, where cardiac rhabdomyomas are...

Central neurocytomas are WHO grade II neuroepithelial intraventricular tumours with fairly characteristic imaging features, appearing as heterogeneous masses of variable size and enhancement within the lateral ventricle, typically attached to the septum pellucidum. They are typically seen in you...

Choledochal cysts represent congenital cystic dilatations of the biliary tree. Diagnosis relies on the exclusion of other conditions (e.g. tumour, gallstone, inflammation) as a cause of biliary duct dilatation. Epidemiology Choledochal cysts are rare, with an incidence of 1:100,000-150,000. Al...

Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is the most common cancer of the gastrointestinal tract and the second most frequently diagnosed malignancy in adults. CT and MRI are the modalities most frequently used for staging. Surgical resection may be curative although five-year survival rate is 40-50%. Epidem...

The term cystic meningioma is applied to both meningiomas with intratumoral degenerative cyst formation as well as those with peritumoral arachnoid cysts or reactive intraparenchymal cysts.  They should not be confused with microcystic meningiomas, a distinct variant, in which the cysts are mic...

The differential diagnosis for multiple cystic neck lesions is different to that for a solitary cystic neck mass. Differential diagnosis Cystic neck lesions are seen in: necrotic metastatic SCC nodes: older patient, M>F papillary thyroid carcinoma metastases: usually a younger patient, F>M ...

The differential for cystic lesions of the pancreas includes: unilocular pancreatic pseudocyst intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) serous cystadenoma uncommonly uni/macrolocular simple pancreatic cyst pancreatic cysts occur in association with  von Hippel Lindau syndrome autos...

Ependymomas represent a relatively broad group of glial tumours most often arising from the lining the ventricles of the brain or the central canal of the spinal cord. They account for ~5% of all neuroepithelial neoplasms, ~10% of all paediatric brain tumours and up to 33% of brain tumours occur...

Fibrinous pericarditis results from fine granular roughening of the pericardium. Clinical presentation Pericardial friction rub may be heard. Pathology Causes viral acute idiopathic tuberculosis pyogenic acute rheumatic fever myocardial infarction: Dressler syndrome chronic renal fail...

Gangliogliomas are uncommon usually low-grade CNS tumours. Epilepsy is a common clinical presentation and this tumour has a typical occurrence in the temporal lobes, although they have been described in all parts of the central nervous system. Their appearance on imaging is very variable: from ...

Hodgkin lymphoma or Hodgkin disease (HD) is a type of lymphoma and accounts for ~1% of all cancers. HD spreads contiguously and predictably along lymphatic pathways and is curable in ~90% of cases, depending on its stage and sub-type. Epidemiology There is a bimodal distribution in the age of ...