Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 16, 2023; 11(26): 6240-6245
Published online Sep 16, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i26.6240
Squamous cell carcinoma associated with endometriosis in the uterus and ovaries: A case report
Zhe Cai, Gao-Liang Yang, Qing Li, Lei Zeng, Li-Xiang Li, Yi-Pei Song, Fan-Rong Liu
Zhe Cai, Gao-Liang Yang, Qing Li, Lei Zeng, Li-Xiang Li, Fan-Rong Liu, Department of Pathology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China
Yi-Pei Song, Medical Imagine Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China
Author contributions: Cai Z drafted the manuscript and contributed substantially to revising the manuscript; Yang GL, Li Q, Zeng L, Li LX, and Song YP edit the manuscript and contributed substantially to revising the manuscript; Liu FR contributed substantially to revising the manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report o relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fan-Rong Liu, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Pathology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, No. 1 Minde Road, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China. liufanrong@163.com
Received: May 26, 2023
Peer-review started: May 26, 2023
First decision: August 8, 2023
Revised: August 19, 2023
Accepted: August 23, 2023
Article in press: August 23, 2023
Published online: September 16, 2023
Processing time: 105 Days and 4.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Endometriosis is a common benign gynecological disease that causes dysmenorrhea in women of childbearing age. Malignant tumors derived from endometriosis are rarely reported and are found in only 1% of all patients with endometriosis. Here, we report a well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) caused by squamous metaplasia of endometriosis that co-occurred in the uterus and ovaries.

CASE SUMMARY

A 57-year-old postmenopausal woman had a 6-month history of irregular uterine bleeding. The uterus and adnexa were examined by computed tomography, and there were two solid cystic masses in the pelvis and right adnexa. Histological findings of surgical specimens showed well-differentiated SCC arising from squamous metaplasia of ectopic endometrial glands in the uterus and ovaries. The patient received chemotherapy after surgery and was followed up for 3 mo without metastasis.

CONCLUSION

The continuity between ectopic endometrial glands and SCC supports that SCC originates from ectopic endometrial glands with metaplasia towards squamous epithelium.

Keywords: Squamous cell carcinoma; Ovaries; Uterus; Endometriosis; Case report

Core Tip: We report a rare case of squamous cell carcinoma arising from squamous metaplasia of endometriosis that co-occurred in the uterus and ovaries. To date, the reported cases were all treated with paclitaxel combined with carboplatin chemotherapy after radical surgery. In most cases, including ours, the patients tolerated chemotherapy well, and demonstrated dramatic responses, such as disappearance of metastases and no relapse.