Glassy cell carcinoma arising in the vagina

Glassy cell carcinoma is a rare neoplasm that occurs most frequently in the uterine cervix. We describe the first reported case of glassy cell carcinoma arising in the vagina. A 77-year-old Japanese woman was admitted to our hospital for atypical genital bleeding. Gynecological examination revealed a macroscopic vaginal cancer of 1.5 cm in diameter located in the upper 1/3 of the vagina. The pathological diagnosis of the biopsied specimen was glassy cell carcinoma. She was successfully treated by conventional radiation therapy and chemotherapy under the diagnosis of stage I vaginal cancer (International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians classification, 1986). The patient is alive, without evidence of recurrence, 21 months following the radiation therapy. Glassy cell carcinoma is classified as the most poorly differentiated form of adenosquamous carcinoma. The present case illustrates the potential for glassy cell carcinoma to arise in the Mullerian epithelium throughout the female genital tract.