ABSTRACT
Aim: Villoglandular adenocarcinoma (VGA) of the uterine cervix is a variant of endocervical adenocarcinoma. However, the clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical features of VGA are still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical features of VGA. Materials and Methods: A total of 20 VGA patients were identified among 852 patients diagnosed with cervical cancer and enrolled in this study. The immunohistochemical levels of Ki-67, P53, P16, progesterone receptor (PR), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), vimentin (Vim), and estrogen receptor (ER) were measured by immunohistochemistry. Results: VGA was prevalent in younger women and presented favorable prognosis. Ki-67, P16, and CEA were highly expressed in VGA tissues, while PR expression was hardly to be detected. The positive rates of Ki-67, CEA, and P16 were 90.0%, 90.0%, and 85.0%, respectively, which were significantly higher compared with PR (5.0%, P < 0.001). In addition, the positive rates of P53, Vim, and ER in VGA tissues were 55.0%, 50.0%, and 40.0%, respectively. However, the expression levels of Ki-67, P53, P16, PR, CEA, Vim, and ER were not significantly associated with clinical features (P > 0.05). Conclusion: These data indicate that VGA is a rare cervical adenocarcinoma, which is prevalent in younger women, and presents favorable prognosis. Detection of Ki-67, P53, P16, PR, CEA, Vim, and ER would be beneficial for the diagnosis of VGA.
ABSTRACT
The incidence of cervical adenocarcinoma has increased over the last several decades. Villoglandular adenocarcinoma of the cervix (VGA) is a distinct subset of cervical adenocarcinoma, is very rare and occurs in young women. We report an extremely rare case of invasive villoglandular adenocarcinoma of the cervix in a 75 year old woman with unusual clinical presentation.
ABSTRACT
Villoglandular adenocarcinoma (VGA) is a rare subtype of cervical adenocarcinoma with a more favorable prognosis compared to conventional adenocarcinomas. Although the tumors are usually recognized on colposcopic examination due to the mainly exophytic growth pattern, they may be underdiagnosed as benign lesions by cytology because of their minimal cytologic atypia. We report the liquid-based cytology (LBC) findings of three histologically confirmed VGAs which we have recently identified. They were characterized by hypercellular smears on low-power examination with smooth-bordered three-dimensional papillary fragments. The nuclei were relatively uniform with irregular nuclear membranes. Nucleoli were small but distinct and macronucleoli were also seen. The abnormal architectural patterns such as papillary structures and nuclear overlapping and nuclear hyperchromasia are important clues to the diagnosis of VGA. In addition, nuclear membrane irregularity and prominent nucleoli can be recognized on LBC specimens, further facilitating its diagnosis.
Subject(s)
Adenocarcinoma , Nuclear Envelope , Prognosis , Uterine Cervical NeoplasmsABSTRACT
Villoglandular adenocarcinoma of uterine cervix has recently been described, and is characterized by good prognosis and occurrence in young women, except a small number of cases. Morphologically, it exclusively shows villoglandular growth and mild to moderate nuclear atypia, the cytologic diagnoses have been frequently missed due to interpretation error. We report here on the cytologic findings of two cases, and both cases were not diagnosed as adenocarcinoma before punch biopsy. One of these cases showed previously described characteristic features such as high cellularity and large tissue fragments with long villous fronds lined by columnar cell with mild nuclear atypia. The other showed moderate cellularity of somewhat smaller clusters without long villous structures. The clusters showed marked nuclear overlapping and the nuclei showed distinct moderate atypia with hyperchromasia and coarse chromatin pattern. The nucleoli were indistinct. Recognition of these features will be helpful to avoid underdiagnosis as a benign lesion, although diagnosis is still difficult in a portion of the cases.