Tumor cell phagocytosis. Its occurrence in a patient with medulloblastoma

Phagocytosis was observed in tumor cells from a metastatic medulloblastoma to the bone marrow. Erythrocytes and leukocytes were seen in the cytoplasm of the tumor cells. Another abnormal finding was self-phagocytosis, in which tumor cells engulfed one another. The mechanism of tumor phagocytosis is not yet clearly understood. Only a few cases of erythrophagocytosis by epithelial tumor cells have been reported in the literature. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a medulloblastoma with hematophagocytosis.