Extensive psammomatous calcification of the uterus and cervix associated with a uterine serous carcinoma
- Correspondence to: Dr W G McCluggage Department of Pathology, Royal Group of Hospitals Trust, Grosvenor Road, Belfast BT12 6BL, Northern Ireland; glenn.mccluggagebll.n-i.nhs.uk
- Accepted 22 March 2004
Abstract
This report describes a uterine serous carcinoma with bilateral ovarian metastasis, which was associated with widespread extensive psammomatous calcification of the uterine leiomyomata, the myometrium, and the cervical stroma. These psammoma bodies were not associated with tumour or epithelial elements. This psammomatous calcification is rare, with no previous reports of similar cases. The presence of psammoma bodies is probably related to the serous carcinoma, raising the possibility that psammoma body formation in serous carcinomas is the result of a factor secreted locally by the tumour, rather than the widely held theory that their formation is secondary to necrosis, with subsequent dystrophic calcification within a papillary neoplasm.
