[Tumors of the female urethra: difficulties in the early diagnosis]

There is no widespread agreement on the treatment of tumors of the female urethra due to their scant incidence. These are generally slowly growing tumors with no salient or specific symptoms and signs. They manifest late and can be misdiagnosed as urethral lesions mimicking a tumor, therefore a biopsy is warranted. For all the foregoing reasons, these tumors are diagnosed in the advanced stages, with a worse prognosis despite very aggressive therapies. Two such cases are described: one was a Grabstald stage C3 epidermoid carcinoma that was submitted to anterior pelvic exenteration and died at 6 months, and the other was a Grabstald stage D4 papillary adenocarcinoma that died a few days after a resection biopsy. Due to the lower incidence of urethral adenocarcinoma, we review the literature on this tumor type and highlight its greater predisposition to progression which carries a worse prognosis.