Search

Currently, the indications for progestin therapy are limited to endometrioid adenocarcinoma that are International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) grade 1, FIGO stage IA, and confined to the endometrium. However, there have been attempts to broaden the indications of progestin therapy to patients with higher FIGO grades and/or with superficial myometrial invasion. We experienced a case with myoinvasive endometrioid adenocarcinoma treated with oral progestin, whose follow-up endometrial curettage specimen showed an apparent complete histologic regression; however, the final hysterectomy specimen disclosed myoinvasive endometrioid adenocarcinoma within the superficial myometrium, with absence of residual tumor in the endometrium. We describe this case to demonstrate that complete histologic regression of the endometrial lesion in a follow-up curettage specimen after progestin treatment does not guarantee histologic regression of the carcinoma within the myometrium. Our case indicates that current indications for progestin treatment should not be broadened to patients with superficial myometrial invasion.

Benign metastasizing leiomyoma is a rare lesion characterized by benign-appearing smooth muscle tumor most frequently involving the lung and usually associated with a benign leiomyoma or intravenous leiomyomatosis of the uterus. The pathogenetic mechanism of the tumor has not been clarified, but the possibilities including hormone-sensitive in situ proliferations of smooth muscle bundles, mechanical displacement or intravascular spread of preexisting benign uterine tumor tissue, and metastasized very low-grade uterine leiomyosarcoma have been proposed. We described a case of pulmonary benign metastasizing leiomyoma associated with a uterine intravenous leiomyomatosis in a 46-year-old woman with a result of comparative genomic hybridization study. The 2 lesions showed significantly overlapping, if not identical, complex genomic changes in the comparative genomic hybridization, suggesting that the 2 lesions are closely related to each other. Unresected pulmonary nodules were left untreated for 13 months after the hysterectomy and wedge biopsy of 3 pulmonary nodules to show no further growth, suggesting clinical behavior of nonmalignant tumor in our case. Benign metastasizing leiomyomas may comprise a heterogeneous group of tumors in terms of their malignant potential and pathogenetic mechanism.

Superficial endometriosis of the uterine cervix is a not uncommon lesion and the cells on the cervicovaginal smear shed from it can be easily mistaken for cervical glandular intraepithelial neoplasia (CGIN). The correct diagnosis can not always be easily made on H&E stained tissue sections unless it is suspected. The endometriotic stroma is often misinterpreted as stromal hypercellularity or postinflammatory fibrosis following erosion or ulceration of the cervical mucosa. Moreover, the endometriotic glands may resemble tubo-endometrioid metaplasia of the endocervical glands. This article describes the utility of trichrome and reticulin stains in the diagnosis of superficial cervical endometriosis. The absence of abundant thick collagen bundles and the investment of individual stromal cells by a fine reticulin network within the endometriotic foci are characteristic histologic features. These findings are not observed in the surrounding normal cervical stroma nor in the usual conditions in the differential diagnosis.