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In the light of two cases of benign schwannomas of the tongue, including one particularly large tumour, the authors review the clinical and histological features and natural history of these tumours. Their rarity may explain the limited knowledge concerning these tumours and the long interval prior to treatment, resulting in technical difficulties due to their volume. Surgical enucleation is generally easy to perform. The prognosis is excellent after resection, as malignant transformation is exceptional.

A histological study of the margins of radical prostatectomy specimens has been made intraoperatively by frozen section in a series of 66 patients. In 8 of them (12% of all) a positive margin was discovered 10 times at the urethral [3], vesical [2], deferential [1] level, at the level of the Santorini [1] and of the rectoprostatic wall [3]. Further resection was immediately performed until histologically normal tissue was reached in 6 of these patients, for whom positive margins were thus made negative; and the prostatectomy was performed. The prostate was not removed in two patients. Only one positive margin not screened intraoperatively was discovered on definitive specimen examination. The rate of postoperative PSA was lowered in the 6 patients whose margins had been made negative, which is compatible with complete resection. However, 7 of these 8 patients received radiation (45 gray). We made a comparison between the groups with negative (57 patients) and positive margins (9 patients) for preoperative PSA levels, Gleason's scores, and invasion of the capsule, of the seminal vesicles and of the lymph nodes. There was no significant difference between both groups for the PSA levels, Gleason's score and the involvement of the seminal vesicles. Conversely, there was a significant difference between both groups (corrected chi 2 test) for invasion of the capsule (p = 0.02) and of lymph nodes (p = 0.02). Intraoperative histological control allows immediately recognizing and treating some positive margins, in order to choose during the operation whether resection should be widened or abandoned.

Ultrasonically guided liver puncture was carried out in 26 patients without overt carcinoma, who presented with a small intrahepatic mass giving an ultrasonographic image of primary or secondary tumour. Puncture was performed with a lumbar or a Chiba needle under local anaesthesia, and a real-time ultrasound apparatus with guide was used. The specimens collected were fixed on slides for histological examination. An aetiological diagnosis was made in 73% of the cases (16 carcinomas and 3 liver abscesses). No abnormal cells were detected and further investigations were conducted in 15%. The failure rate was 12% (2 punctures without specimens and 1 false-negative result). No infectious or haemorrhagic complication was observed.

In that work, the authors determine precisely the classical outlines relating to the formation described by LUSCHKA in 1859. The morphology, the situation in relation with the medium sacral artery, the exact topography of what is wrongly called "gland of Luschka" are successively analysed. Otherwise, notions which emerge about is histological conformation are referred to.

Pigmented melanomas were induced in the Syrian golden hamster by oral administration of 9, 10-dimethyl 1,2-benzanthracene. The primary tumors were grafted into new animals to obtain a series of transplantable tumors. The grafted tumors show the malignant characters which are not present in the primary tumors. These were studied clinically, histologically and ultrastructurally. We believe that this transformation occured perhaps as a consequence of the selection of cells which have a more prominent tendency toward malignancy. This selection could be explained by a greater resistance of lesser pigmented melanocytes or by their weak immunologic capacity. The malignant potential of these cells could eventually be correlated with the presence of viral particles which act as cocarcinogens.