Unsuccessful planned conservative resection of placental site trophoblastic tumor

Abstract

Background: Placental site trophoblastic tumor is a rare subtype of gestational trophoblastic neoplasia affecting women of reproductive age. The preferred method of treatment is surgical resection.

Case: A 33-year-old woman, gravida 3 para 1111, was incidentally diagnosed with placental site trophoblastic tumor during an evaluation for infertility. As a result of persistent pathologic evidence of disease, she underwent a hysterectomy. The site of disease on pathologic review of the hysterectomy specimen was widely discordant from the preoperative imaging and hysteroscopic evaluations.

Conclusion: Wedge resection of the uterus has been suggested as an acceptable alternative to hysterectomy in women with placental site trophoblastic tumor who wish to preserve future fertility. However, this case demonstrated that preoperative imaging may not correlate with the tumor site, making wedge resection treatment ineffective.