Fallopian tube adenocarcinoma: common extraperitoneal recurrence

Fallopian tube adenocarcinoma is a rare gynecologic tumor that spreads like epithelial ovarian carcinoma. From 1954 to 1982, thirty patients with tubal adenocarcinomas were treated at UCLA and by the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. The mean age was 52 years. Pain, irregular or postmenopausal bleeding, and vaginal discharge were the most common presenting symptoms. Twenty-two had undergone previous pelvic or abdominal surgery. A pelvic mass was the most common physical finding, while Pap smears, IVP, and BE were rarely helpful in making the diagnosis or planning treatment. All of the patients in this report underwent primary therapeutic surgery. Nineteen patients received radiation and fourteen, systemic chemotherapy. Surgical stage was prognostic for survival. Fourteen patients with Stage I and II disease are NED (4 at 2 years; 10 at 5 years). No patients with Stage III or IV disease survived 5 years. Recurrences were noted as late as 6 years after primary therapy and 10 of 14 recurrent sites were extraperitoneal.