Primary Adenocarcinoma of the Uterine Cervix: Classification and Grading

Abstract

Abstract Cervical adenocarcinomas are a group of malignancies with several distinct histologic tumor types, which include endocervical usual type, endometrioid, intestinal, villoglandular, gastric, signet ring, serous, clear cell, and mesonephric. Diagnosis of cervical adenocarcinoma, in particular early diagnosis, and classification of the tumor type may pose a significant challenge. The goal of this article is to review the current classification, diagnostic criteria, adjunct markers, and differential diagnosis of various subtypes of cervical adenocarcinomas. The article presents up-to-date summary of such problematic issues as differentiating glandular tumors from benign mimics, differentiating early invasive lesions from adenocarcinoma in situ, determining the tumor type, and, finally, differentiating primary cervical adenocarcinoma from uterine endometrioid adenocarcinoma. Discussion of human papillomavirus detection in different tumor types is provided.