[Prognostic significance of the morphological signs of the malignancy of a pheochromocytoma].

The authors have studied the prognostic value of such convincing morphological signs of tumor malignancy as cellular and nuclear polymorphism, the mitotic activity, the invasion of tumor cells into the vascular lumen, the presence of metastases in 28 operated patients with a hormone-active tumor of chromaffin tissue. The results of late-term observations within the period from 2 to 17 years indicated that all the patients subjected to radical surgery are alive. Detecting in a histological assay of pheochromocytoma of the aforementioned signs of malignancy except metastases is not an obligatory prognostically unfavourable factor. Such tumor cannot be called pheochromoblastoma, but it should be defined as pheochromocytoma with the morphological signs of malignancy.