Verrucous carcinoma of the cervix--diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties with regards to HPV status. Case report.

Verrucous carcinoma of the cervix is of special interest because of its rare occurrence and frequently existing difficulties in the differential diagnosis, which in verrucous disease eventually leads to a final, more favorable diagnosis. We present a case report of cervical verrucous carcinoma as a rare variant of squamous cell carcinoma in a 65-year-old woman who underwent total hysterectomy based on initial histological diagnosis of cervical dysplasia. Special attention is focused on clinical assessment of the lesion with the depicted restriction of exfoliated cytology as well as misdiagnoses of inappropriately taken, even colposcopically directed biopsy, not covering a full thickness of biopsied tissue. The macro- and micromorphologic similarities of cervical verrucous carcinoma with condylomata acuminata on one hand and invasive squamous cell carcinoma on the other, inclined us to search for a common factor causing human papillomavirus infection.