Uterine sarcoma incidental in infertile women: Experience in a tropical hospital

Objective: Uterine sarcoma is an uncommon gynaecological malignancy. Diagnosis in its early stage and management is challenging especially in a resource poor setting. The objective of the study is to evaluate the clinico-pathologic presentation of uterine sarcoma in 9 subfertile patients that underwent surgery for seemingly benign uterine diseases. Methodology: Nine consecutive infertile women with intra-operative diagnosis of uterine sarcoma were reviewed over a period of 51/2 years. Results: The nine patients were pre-operatively misdiagnosed with uterine fibroid in 7 (77.8%) patients and adenomyosis uteri in 2 (22.2%) patients. The patients mean age was 39.2 years with a range of 36 to 47 years. Parity ranged from para 0 to para 3. Of the nine patients, 7 (77.8%) presented with secondary infertility and two (22.2%) patients with primary infertility. Clinical presentations were mainly abdomino - pelvic mass (100%), pelvic pain (77.8%) and abnormal uterine bleeding in (77.8%) of patients. Three (33.3%) of the 9 patients had history of myomectomy. Pre-operative hysterosalpingogram revealed that six (66.7%) patients had bilateral tubal blockage, two (22.2%) patients had unilateral tubal blockage and one (11.1%) patient had bilateral patent fallopian tubes. Six (66.7%) patients had hydrosalpinges. Clinical staging of malignancy was stage Ic in seven patients, stage IIa and IIb in the remaining two patients. Histologic classifications were leiomyosarcoma in six patients and endometrial stromal sarcoma in three patients. Treatments offered were surgery alone in six (66.7%) patients, surgery with adjuvant chemotherapy for 2 (22.2%) patients and one (11.1%) patient had surgery with adjuvant radiotherapy. Case fatality was 77.8% with a year of diagnosis. Conclusion: In a resource constrained setting, due to limitations in making diagnosis in the early stage of the disease, a high index of suspicion is needed in all elderly infertile women presenting with seemingly benign abdomino pelvic mass.