A Case of Rhabdomyosarcoma with Atypical Cells in Ascitic Fluid

Immunofluorescent and Electron Microscopic Identification of Rhabdomyosarcoma Cells

Abstract

A reliable histological feature of rhabdomyosarcoma is the cross-striation of myofibrills in the cytoplasm of tumor cells. Though the patients with rhabdomyosarcoma develope rarely the fluid accumulation in the abdominal cavity, the identification of origin of tumor cells found in the ascites is difficult.
The patient was a 26-year-old female, from whom rhabdomyosarcoma of the left foot had been excised, the tumor cells appeared in the ascites were identified as rhabdomyosarcoma cells by means of immunopathological method. The tumor cells from ascites were treated with allogeneic anti-skeletal muscle serum obtained from the patient with myasthenia gravis and then reacted with rabbitanti-human immunoglobulin serum labeled with FITC.
Clusters of granular specific immunofluorescence were observed in the cytoplasm of tumor cells. The site of specific immunofluorescence was coincide with the location of myofibrills in the cytoplasm observed by electron microscopy.
The immunopathological method employed might be adjunctive importance for the determination of Origin of tumor cells existing in the.fluid of abdominal or thoracic cavity.