Is the invasion depth in millimeters valid to determine the prognosis of early invasive cervical adenocarcinoma?: A case of recurrent FIGO stage IA1 cervical adenocarcinoma

Background. Recurrence of FIGO stage IA1 cervical adenocarcinoma is extremely rare. We herein report a patient with early invasive cervical adenocarcinoma who developed a recurrence in the vaginal stump. Case. A 52-year-old female complained of contact bleeding, Biopsy of the uterine cervix verified cervical adenocarcinoma, and the patient underwent Okabayashi hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadnectomy and bilateral adnectomy. Histopathologic examination of the uterus revealed an invasive cancer 3 mm in depth. Neither lymph node metastasis nor lymph-vascular space invasion was observed. However, the depth of her normal cervical gland area was 2 mm only, and the cancer invasion involved an area which was deeper than the normal cervical gland area. The vaginal stump recurrence developed 4 years after surgery. Conclusion. The depth of invasion with reference to that of normal cervical glands may become a possible prognostic factor for early invasive cervical adenoarcinoma (C) 2001 Academic Press.