Epithelial-mesenchymal transition in uterine carcinosarcoma from a dedifferentiated papillary serous carcinoma to a sarcoma: case report

Abstract

Carcinosarcomas are endometrial neoplasms with malignant epithelial and mesenchymal components. These are rare tumors, corresponding to <5% of uterine cancers. The average age at diagnosis is 65 years and the most characteristic symptom is transvaginal bleeding, common to other uterine tumors. The definitive diagnosis of the lesion is done by analyzing the surgical specimen and the first-line treatment is surgery with adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The authors report a case of a 59-year-old female diagnosed with a uterine carcinosarcoma, whose epithelial component underwent an epithelial-mesenchymal transition. The outstanding aspects of this report are the aggressiveness of this tumor and the presence of a lymph node metastasis by the sarcomatous component, which represents an unusual biological behavior.

Keywords

• carcinosarcoma
• mixed tumor
• mullerian
• epithelial-mesenchymal transition
• gynecology
• surgical oncology.