Adenocarcinoma involving the uterine cervix: magnetic resonance imaging findings in tumours of endometrial, compared with cervical, origin.

PURPOSE: To determine the distinctive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of cervical and endometrial adenocarcinoma that present clinically as a cervical mass.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

From 1999 to 2002, 56 patients with adenocarcinoma on the initial biopsy of a cervical mass underwent MRI at our institution. Of these, 42 had a visible mass on MRI. Pathology review of all available tissue was the reference standard. A site of origin was determined by the pathologist in 38 of the 42 patients, and these were the cases evaluated; of these patients, 32 cases had adenocarcinoma and 6 had adenosquamous cancers.

RESULTS

Findings were significantly more prevalent in patients with adenocarcinomas of endometrial, compared with cervical, origin for endometrial thickening (11 [73%] and 3 [13%], respectively; P = 0.0003), endometrial mass (11 [73%] and 1 [4%], respectively; P < 0.0001), endometrial cavity expansion by a mass (9 [60%] and 2 [9%], respectively; P = 0.001), and invasion of myometrium from endometrium (9 [60%] and 0, respectively; P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

Adenocarcinomas of the endometrium that involve the cervix have MRI features that help distinguish them from primary adenocarcinomas of the cervix.