Primary signet-ring cell carcinoma of the cervix: case report and review of the literature

Primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the cervix: case report and literature review

Objective

To report an infrequent case of primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the cervix (PSRCC), review the literature and evaluate the clinicopathological characteristics.

Material and methods

A 51-year-old female patient, with 3 years of disease characterised by gynaecologic bleeding and pelvic pain. On examination, cervix replaced by tumour and infiltrated parametria; with cytology and histology of adenocarcinoma with cells in a signet ring pattern. Disease extension studies were negative. Classified as PSRCC stage IIIB, chemotherapy and radiotherapy were indicated, but the patient died a month later. The bibliographic search included publications up to July 2023.

Results

32 cases with a mean age of 47.6 years were identified. The most frequent symptoms were uterine bleeding and abdominal and pelvic pain. The initial stages were treated surgically, some with adjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, with favourable responses; a difference from advanced cases. The average survival was 17.6 months.

Conclusion

PSRCC is rare, with 32 cases reported according to the review. The expression with immunohistochemical and molecular techniques for the human papilloma virus can help confirm the gynaecological primary, but its diagnosis is one of exclusion, since its morphological pattern is related to other primaries, mainly digestive.

Primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the cervix: About an uncommon case report

BACKGROUND

Cervix mucinous adenocarcinomas have been defined by WHO classification into different subtypes: gastric, intestinal and ring signet cell. Ring signet cell subtype represent a diagnostic challenge due to the small number of cases described in the literature. We report hereby the 31st case worldwide, which is all the more exceptional as its atypical clinical presentation with mainly urological clinical signs represented a real diagnostic challenge.

CASE PRESENTATION

We present the uncommon case of a multiparous, menopausal 68 years-old-woman, who presented in our department for pelvic pain evolving for 4 months associated with dysuria. Gynecological examination showed a bulging mass on the anterior vaginal wall with mucoid urinary discharge. Perineal ultrasound and pelvic MRI showed an anterior vaginal mass arising from the anterior vaginal wall, invading the bladder, urethra and respecting vagina's upper third and the rectum associated with multiple metastatic left iliac lymph nodes. Anatomopathological analysis revealed a moderately differentiated mucinous adenocarcinoma with a signet-ring cell appearance. IHC stain for P16, marker for high-risk HPV, was strongly positive. Due to the advanced stage, the patient was not a candidate for upfront surgery and received definitive chemoradiation with palliative intent. The patient succumbed to her disease after only one month of chemotherapy.

CONCLUSIONS

Primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the cervix is rare and associated with a poor outcome. Prognosis is related to the clinical stage. Differentiate primary from metastatic signet cell carcinoma is compulsory. IHC is very helpful but not decisive and the diagnosis is often made by exclusion.

Independent validation of distinct clinicopathological features and prognosis among usual-type, mucinous-type and gastric-type endocervical adenocarcinoma categorised by new WHO classification (2020)

The new World Health Organization (WHO) classification of tumours of the female genital tract (2020) divides endocervical adenocarcinoma (EAC) into human papilloma virus (HPV)-related adenocarcinoma (HPVA) and HPV-independent adenocarcinoma (HPVI) to underscore the morphological and pathogenetic correlation. It may be potentially prognostic. In this study, we appraised the new WHO classification in an independent, single institution-based EAC cohort from China to assess the clinicopathological features and prognostic value among tumour types. Our study cohort contained 402 consecutive, surgically excised EACs consisting of 298 (74.1%) HPVA, 88 (21.9%) HPVI and 16 (4%) adenocarcinomas not otherwise specified (NOS). Usual-type (55.7%) and gastric-type adenocarcinoma (GAC) (18.2%) was the most common type in HPVA and HPVI, respectively. Block p16 staining (94.7% vs 24.4%) and HPV mRNA signal (89.4% vs 0) were more common in HPVA than in HPVI (p<0.001). HPVI or GAC were more frequently associated with prognostically adverse variables including old age, large tumour size, deep invasion of the cervical wall, high tumour stage, spread of the upper genital tract, lymphovascular invasion, and mutant-type p53 expression, compared to HPVA or mucinous/usual-type HPVA, respectively (all p<0.001). In univariate survival analysis, HPVI had a worse overall survival and higher tumour recurrence compared to HPVA (p<0.05). Mucinous-type HPVA showed a worse prognosis than usual-type HPVA, but better than GAC (p<0.001). Multivariate survival analysis demonstrated that HPVI was independently associated with a worse overall survival and tumour recurrence (p<0.05) while GAC was an adverse prognostic factor independently of FIGO stage (p<0.05). Our findings validate the value of the new WHO classification in prognostic stratification and pathogenetic correlation in EAC and its subtypes.

Primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix: A case report

RATIONALE

Primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix is extremely rare and the clinical characteristics and prognosis are not well known and there are no specific guidelines for treatment.

PATIENT CONCERNS

A 43-year-old woman was referred to our hospital for abnormal uterine bleeding lasting 1 month.

DIAGNOSES

Histological examination revealed a signet ring cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. After evaluation of extragenital origin, the patient was diagnosed International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage IIIC1 primary signet ring cell carcinoma or the uterine cervix.

INTERVENTION

The patient was prescribed concomitant chemo-radiation followed by intracavitary brachytherapy.

OUTCOMES

She showed no evidence of disease after treatment but, it recurred after 7 months of last treatment.

LESSONS

Different approaches to diagnosis and treatment of this rare disease are needed and molecular pathological studies related to the onset of the disease are required.

Recent advances in invasive adenocarcinoma of the cervix

Endocervical adenocarcinomas (ECAs) are currently classified according to the 2014 World Health Organization (WHO) system, which is predominantly based on descriptive morphologic characteristics, considers factors bearing minimal etiological, clinical, or therapeutic relevance, and lacks sufficient reproducibility. The 2017 International Endocervical Adenocarcinoma Criteria and Classification (IECC) system was developed by a group of international collaborators to address these limitations. The IECC system separates ECAs into two major groups-those that are human papillomavirus-associated (HPVA) and those that are non-HPV-associated (NHPVA)-based on morphology (linked to etiology) alone, precluding the need for an expensive panel of immunohistochemical markers for most cases. The major types of HPVA ECA include the usual (with villoglandular and micropapillary architectural variants) and mucinous types (not otherwise specified [NOS], intestinal, signet-ring, and invasive stratified mucin-producing carcinoma). Invasive adenocarcinoma NOS is morphologically uninformative, yet considered part of this group when HPV positive. NHPVA ECAs include gastric, clear cell, endometrioid, and mesonephric types. The IECC system is supported by demographic and clinical features (HPVA ECAs develop in younger patients, are smaller, and are diagnosed at an earlier stage), p16/HPV status (almost all HPVA ECAs are p16 and/or HPV positive), prognostic parameters (NHPVA ECAs more often have lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastases, and are Silva pattern C), and survival data (NHPVA ECAs are associated with worse survival). A move from the morphology-based WHO system to the IECC system will likely provide clinicians with an improved means to diagnose and classify ECAs, and ultimately, to better personalize treatment for these patients.

Cervical Glandular Neoplasia: Classification and Staging

Endocervical adenocarcinomas (EAs) account for 25% of all primary cervical carcinomas. Approximately 85% of EAs are driven by high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, the most common of which is the so-called usual type endocervical adenocarcinomas. Non-HPV-driven subtypes harbor distinct clinicopathologic features and prognosis and have been increasingly recognized in recent years, which has led to efforts to improve classification of EA based on clinically relevant and reproducible criteria. This review discusses a recently proposed classification system, the International Endocervical Adenocarcinoma Criteria and Classification, which uniquely integrates morphology, cause/pathogenesis, and biological behavior of HPV and non-HPV-driven subtypes of EA.

Adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix: Pathologic features, treatment options, clinical outcome and prognostic variables

Adenocarcinoma accounts for 10-25% of all cervical cancers, and its relative and absolute rate has raised over the past decades. Most, but not all the authors, reported that adenocarcinoma has a greater propensity to lymph node, ovarian and distant metastases and a worse prognosis compared with squamous cell carcinoma. However, whether histologic type is an independent prognostic factor is still a debated issue. Moreover, adenocarcinoma is a very heterogenous disease, including different histological subtypes. Whereas radical hysterectomy and definitive radiotherapy achieve the same clinical outcome in early stage squamous cell carcinoma, surgery seems to obtain better survival compared with definitive radiotherapy in early stage adenocarcinoma. Chemoradiation is the standard treatment for locally advanced cervical cancer regardless of histologic type, although several retrospective studies showed that patients with adenocarcinoma were more likely to die than those with squamous cell carcinoma both before and after concurrent chemoradiation era. The prognostic relevance of biological variables, such as cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors, p53, cyclooxygenase-2 [COX-2], cell surface tyrosine-kinases and programmed death-ligand [PD-L1], is still under investigation. Palliative chemotherapy is the only treatment option for persistent or recurrent cervical adenocarcinoma not amenable with surgery and radiotherapy. The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors as well as a therapeutic strategy targeting cell surface tyrosine kinases should be adequately explored in this clinical setting.

International Endocervical Adenocarcinoma Criteria and Classification (IECC): A New Pathogenetic Classification for Invasive Adenocarcinomas of the Endocervix

We sought to classify endocervical adenocarcinomas (ECAs) based on morphologic features linked to etiology (ie, human papillomavirus [HPV] infection), unlike the World Health Organization 2014 classification. The International Endocervical Adenocarcinoma Criteria and Classification (IECC criteria), described herein, distinguishes between human papillomavirus-associated adenocarcinoma (HPVA), recognized by the presence of luminal mitoses and apoptosis seen at scanning magnification, and no or limited HPVA features (nonhuman papillomavirus-associated adenocarcinoma [NHPVA]). HPVAs were then subcategorized based on cytoplasmic features (mostly to provide continuity with preexisting classification schemes), whereas NHPVAs were subclassified based on established criteria (ie, gastric-type, clear cell, etc.). Complete slide sets from 409 cases were collected from 7 institutions worldwide. Tissue microarrays representing 297 cases were constructed; immunohistochemistry (p16, p53, vimentin, progesterone receptor) and chromogenic in situ hybridization using an RNA-based probe set that recognizes 18 varieties of high-risk HPV were performed to validate IECC diagnoses. The 5 most common IECC diagnoses were usual-type (HPVA) (73% of cohort), gastric-type (NHPVA) (10%), mucinous adenocarcinoma of HPVA type, including intestinal, mucinous not otherwise specified, signet-ring, and invasive stratified mucin-producing carcinoma categories (9%), clear cell carcinoma (NHPVA) (3%) and adenocarcinoma, not otherwise specified (2%). Only 3 endometrioid carcinomas were recognized and all were NHPVA. When excluding cases thought to have suboptimal tissue processing, 90% and 95% of usual-type IECC cases overexpressed p16 and were HPV, whereas 37% and 3% of NHPVAs were p16 and HPV, respectively. The 1 HPV gastric-type carcinoma was found to have hybrid HPVA/NHPVA features on secondary review. NHPVA tumors were larger and occurred in significantly older patients, compared with HPVA tumors (P<0.001). The high-risk HPV chromogenic in situ hybridization probe set had superior sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values (0.955, 0.968, 0.992, 0.833, respectively) compared with p16 immunohistochemistry (0.872, 0.632, 0.907, 0.545, respectively) to identify HPV-related usual carcinoma and mucinous carcinoma. IECC reliably segregates ECAs into HPVA and NHPVA types using morphology alone. This study confirms that usual-type ECAs are the most common type worldwide and that mucinous carcinomas comprise a mixture of HPVA and NHPVA, with gastric-type carcinoma being the major NHPVA type. Endometrioid and serous carcinomas of the endocervix are extraordinarily rare. Should clinical outcomes and genomic studies continue to support these findings, we recommend replacement of the World Health Organization 2014 criteria with the IECC 2017.

Primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the cervix: A case report and review of the literature

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To date, only 18 cases with primary signet cell carcinoma of the cervix has been reported.

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Differentiation of primary tumour from metastatic signet cell carcinoma carries significant important while treatment and prognosis differ significantly.

Introduction

Primary signet cell carcinoma of the cervix has been reported only in 18 cases to date.

Presentation of case

A 48-year-old woman was seen at our Gynecologic Oncology Unit, because she complained postcoital bleeding during the last three months. She had 1–2 cm cervical mass, originating from the endocervical canal. A biopsy revealed a signet ring cell-type adenocarcinoma. Suspected primary sites were excluded after gastroscopy, colonoscopy and mammography. The patient underwent a laparoscopic type-3 radical hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo–oophorectomy, pelvic lymph node dissection and paraaortic lymph node dissection with a presumed diagnosis of primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the cervix. Microscopically, the tumour consisted of 70% signet ring cell type and 30% endocervical adenocarcinoma. She did not receive any adjuvant treatment. Follow-up at 18 months after surgery showed no evidence of recurrence.

Discussion

Nineteenth case of a primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the cervix was presented. Immunohistochemical studies and HPV DNA positivity may help in diagnosis.

Conclusion

It is crucial to differentiate primary tumour from metastatic signet cell carcinoma, while treatment and prognosis differ significantly.

Primary signet ring cell adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix - A rare neoplasm that raises the question of metastasis to the cervix

Primary signet ring cell adenocarcinoma is extremely rare. Signet ring cell carcinoma is more commonly primary in the stomach or breast, and the more likely metastatic disease to the cervix needs to be ruled out. We present a case of primary signet ring cell carcinoma of the cervix and review the literature.

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Primary signet-ring cell carcinoma of the cervix is extremely rare.

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Primary signet-ring cell carcinoma appears to be aggressive in higher stage disease.

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Metastatic signet ring cell carcinoma needs to be ruled out.

Recent Developments in Non-HPV-related Adenocarcinomas of the Lower Female Genital Tract and Their Precursors

Most adenocarcinomas in the lower female genital tract (cervix, vagina, vulva) arise in the cervix and are associated with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. However, there is an emerging spectrum of non-HPV-related cervical adenocarcinomas, the most common of which is so-called gastric type. In this review, the concept of gastric-type cervical adenocarcinomas and their possible precursor lesions is covered, the precursor lesions still being poorly understood. Other non-HPV-related cervical adenocarcinomas are also discussed, including new information regarding molecular events in mesonephric adenocarcinoma. A variety of primary vaginal adenocarcinomas, including clear cell, endometrioid, intestinal and gastric types are also discussed. The spectrum of benign and malignant glandular lesions involving the lower female genital tract and probably derived from misplaced Skene's (periurethral) glands is also covered.

The spectrum of cervical glandular neoplasia and issues in differential diagnosis

CONTEXT

Premalignant and malignant glandular lesions of the cervix are known to often cause diagnostic problems with a variety of benign (more common) as well as other malignant mimics, the latter setting often being represented by secondary involvement by endometrioid endometrial carcinoma especially in small samplings.

OBJECTIVE

To highlight key histologic features and immunohistochemical markers that may be helpful in the distinction of in situ endocervical carcinoma from benign glandular proliferations, and those that separate different subtypes of invasive endocervical carcinoma, as well as invasive carcinoma from other carcinomas secondarily involving the cervix and nonneoplastic proliferations of the cervix.

CONCLUSIONS

Clinical and morphologic features as well as immunohistochemistry results should be used in conjunction in the differential diagnosis of glandular proliferations of the cervix, as correct interpretation has major clinical consequences for the patient in most instances (especially benign versus malignant). Immunohistochemical markers should be used as part of a panel of antibodies, as exceptions may occur to the usual pattern of staining, and if used singly, they may mislead the pathologist to establish a wrong diagnosis.

A new case of primary signet-ring cell carcinoma of the cervix with prominent endometrial and myometrial involvement: Immunohistochemical and molecular studies and review of the literature

Background

As a rule, endocervical tumours with signet-ring cell are classed as metastatic extra-genital neoplasms. In a patient aged 45 years, we describe primary cervical signet-ring cell carcinoma (PCSRCC) characterized by prominent endometrial and myometrial involvement, simulating primary endometrial adenocarcinoma with cervical extension. In addition, a review was made of the literature to identify the clinical and pathological features of this rare malignancy.

Case presentation

A 45-year-old woman was referred to our Gynaecology Department due to persistent abnormal vaginal bleeding. Transvaginal ultrasonography showed slight endometrial irregularities in the whole uterine cavity suggestive of endometrial neoplasms. Pelvic magnetic resonance imaging revealed diffuse enlargement of the cervix, which had been replaced by a mass. Induration extended to the parametria and sigmoid colon fat.

Histological examination of endometrial curettage and a cervical biopsy revealed a neoplasm characterized by neoplastic signet-ring cells and trabecular structures. Immunohistochemical analysis and molecular studies showed certain findings consistent with a cervical neoplasm, such as positivity to CEA, keratin 7, Ca-125 and p16 and the presence of HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) DNA 18.

On examination of the hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy, the lesion replacing the cervix, endometrium and myometrium, revealed the same immunohistochemical findings observed on endometrial curettage and cervical biopsy specimens. Metastases were found in an ovarian cystic lesion and the lymph nodes.

Conclusion

With this report the authors have demonstrated that the spread of cervical adenocarcinoma to the uterine corpus, although rare, may be observed, and that in this instance immunohistochemical and molecular studies can provide sufficient information for accurate diagnosis even on small biopsy specimens.

Endometrial adenocarcinoma with signet ring cells: report of two cases of an extremely rare phenomenon

The presence of signet ring cells in a carcinoma within the uterine corpus strongly raises the possibility of a metastasis from a primary tumor in the breast, gastrointestinal tract, or elsewhere. Signet ring cells are extremely rare in primary endometrial adenocarcinomas with only a single prior case report. We report 2 cases of primary endometrial adenocarcinoma, one of mucinous and the other of endometrioid type, with a significant component of signet ring cells. One of the neoplasms arose within adenomyosis. In reporting these cases, we illustrate that the presence of signet ring cells does not preclude a primary endometrial adenocarcinoma.We discuss signet ring cells in the endometrium.

Primary peritoneal serous carcinoma with signet ring cells

► The case is unique as the signet ring-like tumor cells in the ascites occur in primary peritoneal serous tumors. ► The tumor cells may have degenerated, which led to the formation of cytoplasmic vacuoles and resembled signet ring-like cells.