Adjuvant combined paclitaxel and carboplatin chemotherapy for glassy cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix: report of three cases with clinicopathological analysis.

Glassy cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix (GCC) is a rare form of cervical carcinoma that is characterized by aggressiveness and poor prognosis. We reviewed a variety of clinicopathological features, treatment strategies, and outcomes in three women with GCC. The three patients were successfully treated by radical hysterectomy with pelvic/para-aortic lymphadenectomy. The patients had stage Ib1, stage IIa, and stage Ib2 tumors without lymph node metastases. A 44-year-old woman with stage Ib1 tumor did not undergo adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy. She had recurrent pelvic tumors 12 months after surgery, and died 6 months after the recurrent disease. The histological findings of her cervix, which were different from the other two patients, did not show the marked infiltration of eosinophils. The other two patients with stage Ib2 and IIa tumors underwent adjuvant chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin, and had disease-free survival for 4.5 and 9 years. We think that all patients with GCC of stage Ib1 or more should undergo adjuvant chemotherapy of paclitaxel and carboplatin or other adjuvant therapies.