Glassy cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix: a rare entity and literature review.

Abstract

Glassy cell carcinoma is an extremely rare entity that occurs in 1% to 2% of all cases of cervical cancer, affects young women with greater predisposition, is related to poor prognosis, and distant metastasis. It correlates strongly with the presence of high-risk human papillomavirus (serotypes 16, 18 and 31) and histologically manifests as ground-glass cells, cytosol with vast granular and dense chromatin with large nuclei and protruding nucleoli. We present a 51-year-old woman who was diagnosed with glassy cell carcinoma of the cervix (before the latest edition of the World Health Organisation classification of tumours) in FIGO stage IB1 that was managed with radical hysterectomy and bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection, whose pathological result shows infiltration of the upper third of the vagina, changing the staging to FIGO IIA-1. She received adjuvant concurrent radiotherapy/chemotherapy with a good response, subsequent controls without signs of recurrence and remained currently alive.