Pancreatic cancer can be diagnosed using electron microscopy

Pancreatic cancer patients can undergo electron microscopy examination, the specific contents are as follows:

Purpose of Electron Microscopy

Electron microscopy plays an important role in determining the degree of differentiation of tumor cells, identifying the type and tissue of tumors, distinguishing poorly differentiated carcinomas and sarcomas, and distinguishing various malignant small round cell tumors, such as neuroblastoma, embryonic rhabdomyosarcoma, malignant lymphoma and undifferentiated small cell carcinoma.

Electron microscopy results

Under the electron microscope, cancer cells often have more desmosomes or desmosome-like connections, which can distinguish them from sarcomas. Among malignant small round cell tumors, each type of tumor also has its own ultrastructural characteristics. For example, neuroblastoma often has a large number of dendritic cell processes, and microtubules and neurosecretory granules can be found in the tumor cell body and cell processes; Ewing sarcoma tumor cells are often poorly differentiated, with few organelles in the cytoplasm, but characterized by a large amount of glycogen deposition. Embryonic rhabdomyosarcoma can see dysplastic myotomes composed of myofibrils and Z bands; small cell carcinoma often has intercellular connections and neurosecretory granules in the cytoplasm; malignant lymphoma, in addition to the ultrastructural characteristics of lymphocytes at different stages of development, does not have cell connections, neurosecretory granules, dendritic cell processes and glycogen deposition, which can distinguish it from other small round cell tumors.

Tips: Electron microscopy cannot diagnose specific ultrastructural changes in tumors and malignant tumors. Therefore, the identification of whether a tumor is benign or malignant still mainly relies on light microscopy observation.