Carcinosarcomas and mixed müllerian tumors of the fallopian tube

Abstract

Four cases of carcinosarcoma and mixed müllerian tumors of the fallopian tube are presented. Each patient presented with abnormal bleeding and a pelvic mass. All underwent total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, staging, and cytoreduction. Disease was limited to the pelvis in two patients, analogous to FIGO stage IIB ovarian carcinoma; the other two patients had upper abdominal disease, analogous to FIGO stage III. The primary tumors were intraluminal and papillary. There were equal amounts of carcinoma and sarcoma in three tumors; in one, sarcoma constituted only a small intraluminal focus. The sarcoma was predominantly homologous, with foci of heterologous elements present in three tumors. Adjuvant therapy consisted of pelvic radiation in two patients. One patient died of inanition within one year of diagnosis. The other patient, who had the small focus of sarcoma within a stage IIB carcinoma, had an 11-year disease-free interval before retroperitoneal recurrence of carcinoma. Two patients received chemotherapy. A stage IIB patient, after pelvic radiation, received Cytoxan and Adriamycin; she is clinically free of disease after 6 years. A stage III patient lived over 3 years after treatment with multiple agents; she responded to Cytoxan and cis-platinum before suffering a systemic relapse and death.