[Seven cases of primary adenocarcinoma of the fallopian tube]

Seven patients with primary adenocarcinoma of the fallopian tube were treated at Kyushu University Hospital from 1978 to 1987. They were 0.59% of all patients with gynecologic malignancies in our hospital. Their mean age was 56.0 years old. Four of 7 patients presented with abnormal genital bleeding. Pelvic mass was detected in 6 of 7 patients. One patient showed abnormal cervical cytology and 3 of 6 patients had positive endometrial cytology and/or histology. No diagnosis of tubal cancer was made preoperatively. Primary surgical treatments were performed in all patients. Four patients, who underwent dissection and/or biopsy of pelvic and paraaortic lymph nodes, had no metastasis. However, at the time of recurrence, paraaortic and/or neck lymph nodes metastases were present in 3 of 4 patients. Following surgery, combination chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and cisplatin (CAP) was administered to 6 of 7 patients. Partial responses were obtained in 2 patients with recurrent and evaluable lesions. The mean survival time of 7 patients as yet was 36.0 months after diagnosis. In conclusion, the difficulty of preoperative diagnosis of tubal cancer was reconfirmed. CAP combination chemotherapy seemed to be effective for the treatment of tubal cancer and further study with more cases is warranted.