OBJECTIVES: Endometrial cancer is the sixth most common cancer among women and recurrence of after 10 years is extremely rare.
CASE PRESENTATION: We reported a comprehensive review of histopathology, investigations and treatment regarding a woman with distant recurrence of endometrial cancer to rectus abdominis muscle after 23 years from the primary surgery. Previous published literatures of similar case were included into the review analysis. A total of 11 similar cases had been reported. Overall, 9 (81.8%) cases were stage 1 disease and only 2 cases were classified as stage II disease. The majority, 6 (54.5%) cases were endometrial adenocarcinoma. Majority of the cases shared the similarity of low grade endometrial cancer with positive oestrogen receptor immunophynetype.
CONCLUSIONS: Thus, the phenomenon of 'cell dormancy' was hypothesized to explain the mechanism of late recurrence for these cases.
* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.