Laparoscopic management of vaginal clear cell
adenocarcinoma arising in pelvic endometriosis: Case
report and literature review
Ali Mahdavi, MD, Alireza A. Shamshirsaz, MD, Michele Peiretti, MD,
Konstantin Zakashansky, MD, Muhammad T. Idrees, MD, and Farr Nezhat, MD
From the Division of Gynecologic Oncology and Minimally Invasive Surgery, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and
Reproductive Science (Drs. Mahdavi, Shamshirsaz, Peiretti, Zakashansky, and Nezhat); and the Department of Surgical
Pathology (Dr. Idrees), Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York.
Abstract: Vaginal clear cell adenocarcinoma arising from pelvic endometriosis has not been reported
in the literature. We report a case of a 50-year-old woman with stage I clear cell adenocarcinoma of the
vagina who was found to have endometriosis adjacent to the vaginal tumor. She was treated with
neoadjuvant chemoradiation, laparoscopically assisted radical vaginal hysterectomy, radical upper
vaginectomy, and pelvic lymphadenectomy followed by combination chemotherapy.
© 2006 AAGL. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS:
Vaginal clear cell
adenocarcinoma;
Endometriosis;
Laparoscopic-assisted
radical vaginal
hysterectomy
The incidence of primary vaginal carcinoma is very low;
only 1% to 2% of all malignancies of the female genital
organs originate from the vagina. Clear cell adenocarci-
noma (CCA) of the vagina is a rare vaginal disease, ac-
counting for 5% to 10% of primary vaginal malignancies.
Although the vast majority of vaginal CCAs have been
related to maternal intrauterine exposure to diethylstilbes-
trol (DES)
1
and have occurred in young women between the
ages of 15 and 27 years, women without history of prenatal
DES exposure and those over age 40 have also been af-
fected by this neoplasia. Cases of CCA of the rectovaginal
septum arising from pelvic endometriosis have been de-
scribed in the medical literature.
2
However, the association
of vaginal CCA and pelvic endometriosis is less clear.
We report on a 50-year-old woman with stage I vaginal
CCA and pelvic endometriosis adjacent to the tumor who
underwent laparoscopic-assisted radical vaginal hysterec-
tomy (LARVH), radical upper vaginectomy, and bilateral
pelvic lymphadenectomy after neoadjuvant chemoradiation
therapy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
reported case of vaginal CCA adjacent to an endometriotic
lesion, and also the first reported case of this particular
tumor to be treated laparoscopically.
Case report
A 50-year-old nulligravida woman had postmenopausal
bleeding for 2 months. She had been menopausal for 2 years
with no history of hormone replacement therapy. Gyneco-
logic history was positive for severe pelvic endometriosis,
diagnosed and treated laparoscopically at age 35, and oral
contraceptive use for 15 years. She had a history of rheu-
matoid arthritis, psoriasis, and viral hepatitis A, and she had
Corresponding author: Farr Nezhat, M.D., Division of Gynecologic
Oncology, Mount Sinai Medical Center, 1176 Fifth Avenue, Box 1173,
New York, NY 10036.
E-mail: farr.nezhat@mssm.edu
Submitted September 26, 2005. Accepted for publication January 17,
2006.
1553-4650/$ -see front matter © 2006 AAGL. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmig.2006.01.011
Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology (2006) 13, 237–241