Desmoid tumors in pregnant and postpartum women

We report here a review of the current medical literature on pregnancy associated desmoids, including 10 cases of our own. The pertinent findings are that a large percentage of desmoids in females arise in and around pregnancy. Most occur in the abdominal muscles, particularly the right rectus abdominus, perhaps related to trauma from abdominal stretching and fetal movement. While these tumors may regress spontaneously after delivery most can be surgically resected with low recurrence rates even with R1 resections and this is clearly the treatment of choice. Subsequent pregnancies do not appear to result in recurrence in either FAP or non FAP patients. It is not clear from currently available data whether pregnancy associated desmoids are molecularly distinct from other desmoids.