Adenocarcinoma of the cervix. I. Clinical evaluation and pathologic features

A series of 137 patients with primary adenocarcinoma of the cervix is presented with emphasis on clinical and histologic features. Adenocarcinoma has several distinct histologic patterns that may occur in a pure form but often occur (44%) in combinations of two or more patterns. Mixtures of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma occur in one third of the patients and squamous intraepithelial neoplasia occurs in one tenth. Transmission electron microscopy is helpful in classifying poorly differentiated tumors. Preliminary recurrence/survival data suggest that the identification of patterns and subpatterns has no prognostic significance, nor is there evidence that adenocarcinoma (or adenosquamous carcinoma) metastasizes earlier, metastasizes more frequently, or is more radioresistant. For most patients, treatment may be the same as that for squamous cell carcinoma but a few selected patients with bulky central lesions may benefit from combined therapy consisting of whole-pelvis irradiation and conservative hysterectomy.