Adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix

From 1970 to 1989, 39 patients with cervical adenocarcinoma (9.3% of all cervical cancers) were treated in the Department of Gynecology - University of Pavia. Adenocarcinoma seemed to be a disease epidemiologically different from epidermoid carcinoma. Treatment included radical hysterectomy, radiotherapy, radical hysterectomy and radiotherapy. In stage I disease survival was not significantly influenced by treatment modality. However in young patients without risk factors surgery seemed to obtain the best results; in high risk patients adjuvant radiotherapy did not apparently improve survival. Prognosis for adenocarcinoma seemed to be worse than for its squamous counterpart. The main prognostic factors were grading and lymph node status. Relapse occurred also a long time after treatment. In 2 cases we observed Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia grade 3 (CIN 3) in association with adenocarcinoma.