01.12.2011 | Case report | Ausgabe 1/2011 Open Access
Adult granulosa cell tumor associated with endometrial carcinoma: a case report
- Zeitschrift:
- Journal of Medical Case Reports > Ausgabe 1/2011
Wichtige Hinweise
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1752-1947-5-340) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Competing interests
The authors declare that there is no financial support or relationship that may pose any conflict of interest. The research was funded by the authors.
Authors' contributions
OCI performed the surgery and assisted in the writing of the manuscript and in the gynecologic work-up of the patient. COU worked on preparing the pathologic slides, assisted in the drafting of the manuscript, and performed PubMed research. GUE performed the gynecologic work-up of the patient and assisted in the writing of the manuscript. ACE performed PubMed research and critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Abstract
Introduction
If strict criteria for the diagnosis of carcinoma are used and all patients with granulosa cell tumors are considered, the best estimate of the incidence of associated endometrial carcinomas is under 5%. In patients with granulosa cell tumors, estrogen-dependent endometrial cancers are rarely found, and most of these endometrial cancers are well-differentiated endometrioid adenocarcinomas that carry a good prognosis when detected early.
Case presentation
We report the case of a 65-year-old post-menopausal Nigerian woman of the Igbo tribe with an adult granulosa cell tumor that was initially treated as endometrial carcinoma. She underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy and a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy after histopathologic confirmation of a well-differentiated granulosa cell tumor of the ovary and a nuclear grade 1 adenocarcinoma of the endometrium (International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stage 1B). She had a good post-operative recovery and was discharged 10 days after treatment.
Conclusion
The association between adult granulosa cell tumors of the ovary and endometrial carcinomas is rare. A high index of suspicion as well as good imaging and histopathologic analyses are important in making this diagnosis.