Aim: To investigate the 152 cases of paragangliomas resected over the past 32 years in West China Hospital clinicopathologically.
Methods: All cases of paragangliomas diagnosed at the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery and Department of Pathology, West China Hospital, China were reviewed. The pathological documents were supplied by the Department of Pathology, West China Hospital, and other necessary data were extracted from the hospital records. The statistical analyses were performed by survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier method), descriptive statistical analyses and chi(2) analysis.
Results: The neuroendocrine marker vimentin was found to be selectively expressed in the benign tumors, and there were significant differences in the expression of those markers in both benign and malignant tumors. The survival analysis revealed that survival correlated significantly with the malignancy, metastasis and nodal status.
Conclusion: Vimentin may be useful in the differential diagnosis between malignant and benign tumors. The difference in the expression of this marker in the tumors could be a clue to the future clinical diagnosis. The malignancy, metastasis and the nodal status may predict the prognosis of this disease.