Papillary Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Uterine Cervix with Negative HPV: Report of a Case and Literature Review

Abstract

Abstract

Background: Squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common type of cancer of the uterine cervix. It has several unusual histologic variants. The prognosis and treatment may vary with the histologic type. Papillary squamous-cell carcinoma (PSCC) is one of these unusual variants; it has been poorly reported in the literature. This subtype has distinctive histologic and clinical characteristics and differs from other papillary lesions of the cervix, including: condyloma; verrucous carcinoma; papillary immature metaplasia; and typical SCC. PSCC is characterized by the appearance of late recurrences and metastasis. The involvement of HPV in SCC pathophysiology is not well-established. PSCC is treated in a similar manner to the usual SCC; however PSCC is more sensitive to radiotherapy than SCC is. After reporting on a rare new case of PSCC that was negative for PSCC, this article describes PSCC's clinicopathological features and shows the phenotypic and genotypic differences between PSCC and typical SCC and other other subtypes of this type of cancer. Case: This article reports 1 case of a 70-year-old Moroccan woman with clinically invasive carcinoma. She underwent a type III radical abdominal hysterectomy. The histology showed a PSCC. Searching for HPV by in situ hybridization and then by polymerase chain reaction testing yielded negative results. Results: This patient has been doing well 3 years after her surgery. Conclusions: Because this case was negative for HPV, it lends support to the hypothesis that HPV may not play an etiologic role in this subtype of tumor. (J GYNECOL SURG 28:172)