COMBINED GRANULAR-CELL TUMOR OF THE ESOPHAGUS AND STOMACH - A CASE-REPORT AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

The case of a 56-year-old man with contemporary benign granular cell t umour of the oesophagus and stomach is reported. Surgical resection of the oesophagus and stomach was performed after the diagnosis of squam ous cell carcinoma on a superficial oesophageal biopsy which showed a pseudo-epitheliomatous hyperplasia of the stratified squamous epitheli um covering the oesophageal Granular Cell Tumour (GCT). Hyperplasia wa s also found in the overlying gastric mucosa. Eight GCTs of the oesoph agus, observed between 1980 and 1985, were reevaluated to compare the neoplastic characteristics and the occurrence of overlying epithelial hyperplasia. Only one patient was female; three had multiple oesophage al tumours and four showed pseudo-epitheliomatous hyperplasia. A revie w of the literature is included with emphasis on the rare cases of mul tiple GCTs. The association of chronic alcoholism with GCT of the gast ro-intestinal tract is also stressed.