Retroperitoneal desmoid-type fibromatosis: a case report

Desmoid-type fibromatosis (DF) is a rare subtype of soft tissue sarcomas that most commonly occurs in the anterior abdominal wall. When occurring in the retroperitoneum, DF is usually part of familial syndromes while only rarely sporadic. This makes it imperative to report any instance of experience with DF and the oncological outcomes of the different approaches to management. We report two cases of sporadic and severe DF occurring in the retroperitoneum at our institution.

The first case is a male that presented with urinary obstruction symptoms and underwent surgical resection of the tumor that extended into the left kidney. The second case is a female with a history of recurrent desmoid tumors of the thigh and was incidentally diagnosed with retroperitoneal DF on imaging. She underwent tumor resection and radiotherapy; however, the tumor recurred with urinary obstruction symptoms that required another surgical resection. Histopathological characteristics and radiological imaging of both cases are described below.

Desmoid tumors often recur, thus significantly influencing the quality of life which is reflected in one of our cases. Surgery remains a mainstay treatment, and both cases presented in this report required surgical resection of the tumors as symptomatic and curative measures.

Retroperitoneal DF is a rare entity, and our cases add to the scarce literature available on the topic, which may well contribute to the formulation of practice-changing recommendations and guidelines focused on this rare variant of DF.