Case report: Unpredictable nature of tubal cancer

Primary tubal cancer is very rare, most are diagnosed intra and post operatively. Histopathology is vital in determining the cancer origin. Here we present a case of fallopian tube cancer with clinical presentation mimicking endometrial origin.

A 74-year old patient came with complaints of intermittent post-menopausal bleeding and pelvic pain. The patient had several investigations using Ultrasonography, Hysteroscopy-guided biopsy, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Pre-operative diagnosis was endometrial cancer based on histopathology of endometrial biopsy during hysteroscopy. Explorative laparotomy, total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salphingo-oophorectomy, pelvic and para-aortic lymph node dissection were then performed, and the tumor samples were sent to the histopathology laboratory. It was found that the post-operative diagnosis was in fact primary fallopian tube cancer stage IIB.

For patients with gynecological malignancies, rare cases such as fallopian tube cancer should never be overlooked as a differential diagnosis.