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Background: Giant fibrovascular polyps of the esophagus are rare tumors. They are usually located in the upper third of the esophagus. Symptoms include dysphagia and regurgitation of the mass into the oral cavity, which can cause airway obstruction, secondary to mechanical pressure on the larynx. We present a 34-year-old male patient with a 10-month history of gradually intermittent dysphagia and regurgitating mass into the mouth without syncope, airway obstruction, weight loss, melena and hematemesis. After diagnosis of a giant fibrovascular polyp of the esophagus, endoscopic polypectomy was performed. Histopathological examination revealed a fibrovascular polyp. Esophagoscopy at 2 years after excision showed no mass or symptom recurrence. The literatures regarding giant esophageal polyp were reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The multidisciplinary approach for the improvement of the accuracy of sentinel lymph node (SN) examination is beneficial as it is a less invasive procedure for breast cancer patients . The trend in avoiding axillary dissection will decrease the operative morbidity. The intraoperative technique for the detection of tumor cells in SN by imprint immunocytochemistry (ICC) was studied to avoid axillary dissection. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the results of intraoperative scrape imprint ICC with the results of serial section stained by combined hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) and subsequent immunohistochemistry (IHC). The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of both methods were analysed. Material and Methods: From April 2005 to March 2006, 33 patients with breast cancer were enrolled. The sentinel lymph nodes were removed and sent to pathologists for scrape imprint cytology. The anticytokeratin ICC was used to detect metastatic cancer cells. The sentinel lymph nodes were then routinely examined by H&E staining. If the cancer cells were not detected by the routine H&E study, the negative nodes were then serially sectioned at 20 μm and stained by anticytokeratin IHC to rule out the false negative results. The axillary contents of all cases were removed following the SN dissection for complete pathologic examination to confirm the SN node examination results. Results: Seventy-two sentinel lymph nodes were removed from 33 patients with operable breast cancer. The results of imprint cytology were compared with those of the serial section of SN stained using the combined H&E and IHC methods. The sensitivity of intraoperative SN imprint ICC was 33%, the specificity 94% and the accuracy 66%. The positive predictive value of the imprint ICC was 83% and the negative predictive value 63%. Conclusions: The intraoperative SN imprint ICC in this study was found to have 33% sensitivity, 66% accuracy and low negative predictive value when compared with serial section with combined H&E and IHC. The intraoperative SN imprint ICC alone is not sufficient to be used as a guide to avoid axillary lymph node dissection in operable breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]