Glassy cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix responsive to neoadjuvant intraarterial chemotherapy

Described as a poorly differentiated adenosquamous cancer, glassy cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix is a rare disease considered to have an extremely poor prognosis. Saitama Medical Center has been offering neoadjuvant intraarterial chemotherapy (NAC) to cervical cancer patients as a means of avoiding postoperative radiation therapy, achieving downstaging, and improving prognosis. We report a patient with glassy cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix who responded to NAC, and we discuss this case with reference to reports in the literature. A 28-year-old gravida 1, para 0 patient was referred to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Saitama Medical Center for concurrent cervical cancer at 23.5 gestational weeks. The patient was admitted to our center following the diagnosis of stage IIb cervical cancer (glassy cell carcinoma), to await fetal development, and an elective cesarean section was performed at slightly more than 29 gestational weeks. Three cycles of NAC with carboplatin (CBDCA)/etoposide/epirubicin, started 3 days after the operation, shrank the tumor remarkably. An extended radical hysterectomy was subsequently performed. It has been 6 years, to date, since the initial treatment, and our patient is alive and disease/recurrence free.