The Prettiest Cytoplasmic Inclusions You'll Ever See

If you’ve heard this word thrown around but haven’t known exactly what it is, here is a handy little definition graphic for you! ✨

Melamed-Wolinska bodies are these absolutely gorg cytoplasmic inclusions that show up in urothelial cells (cells of the urinary tract) or prostatic epithelial cells and are most often seen in cases of urothelial carcinoma (aka transitional cell carcinoma) prostatic carcinoma.

(Side note--in terms of the prostate, I had always associated these with urothelial carcinoma in particular, but according to a case report by Leblanc et al, these can also occur in prostatic adenocarcinoma-- interesting!)

I’ve never seen these show up in non-neoplastic urothelial or prostatic epithelial cells, but do know other pathologists have said they have seen them in non-neoplastic urothelial cells. So, I wouldn’t necessarily call these pathognomonic for malignancy, but it certainly shoots up my index of suspicion when I see them, especially if there’s concurrent criteria of malignancy.

Aren’t they pretty? 😍