A case of small intestinal endometrioid adenocarcinoma

A Locally Advanced Endometrioid Adenocarcinoma Arising from Vaginal Endometriosis: Management and Review of the Literature

Endometrioid adenocarcinoma associated with endometriosis at extrauterine or extraovarian localization is a rare entity. Often presenting with local spread without nodal and distant metastasis, this entity has no specific staging system nor treatment guidelines. In the case of nodal and distant spread, the treatment decision requires personalization. In this article, we present the diagnosis and surgical and systemic treatment of a 56-year-old woman diagnosed with an endometriosis-associated advanced endometrioid adenocarcinoma of the vagina with nodal involvement. Following an extensive review of the scarce data reported to guide the treatment choices in this rare setting, we proposed a multidisciplinary treatment with laparoscopic surgical cytoreduction, four cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel, and radiotherapy with brachytherapy. Due to an anaphylactic reaction on the first administration, paclitaxel was replaced with nab-paclitaxel. Despite many negative prognostic factors, the patient is free from relapse after 48 months. We report the case of a locally advanced endometrioid adenocarcinoma associated with endometriosis of the vagina, with pelvic nodal spread, and the relevant literature review of similar cases.

Genes' Interactions: A Major Contributor to the Malignant Transformation of Endometriosis

The genetic and epigenetic factors that contribute to the malignant transformation of endometriosis are still under investigation. The objective of the present study was to investigate the genetic link between endometriosis and cancer by examining and correlating the latest clinical observations with biological experimental data. We collected updated evidence about the genetic relationship between endometriosis and cancers by conducting a comprehensive search of PubMed and Scopus databases, focusing on the papers published between January 2018 and January 2019. New insights into the mechanism of the malignant transformation of endometriosis have been published recently. The use of state-of-the-art techniques and methods, such as the genome-wide association study analysis and the weighted gene co-expression analysis, have significantly altered our understanding of the association between endometriosis and endometriosis-associated cancer development. Interestingly, the interactions formed between genes seem to play a pivotal role in the phenotypic expression of mutations. Therefore, the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms and the function of the expression quantitative trait loci on genes’ expression have been the subject of many recent works. In addition, it has been discovered that genes, the mutations of which have been related to the development of endometriosis, play a role as hub genes. This may lead to new areas of research for understanding the mechanism of malignant transformation of the disease. Significant steps forward have been made towards the identification of factors that control the malignant transformation of endometriosis. Still, due to rarity of the event, a better-organized scheme for sampling on a global level should be adopted.