[Gliomas of the uterus. Apropos of 3 cases and review of the literature]

Abstract

We report three cases of uterine gliomas in young women with a past history of pregnancies and abortions. A survey of the literature revealed that the published cases also concerned young women with the identical gynecological history. The general belief is that the cause of uterine gliomas is the transplanting of fetal nervous tissue during local manipulations in early abortions. Increased numbers of abortions should lead to a higher frequency of such tumors. Transplanted embryonic glial tissue is viable at the beginning of pregnancy and provokes only a weak immunologic rejection. These tumors are benign and no case of transformation into glioblastomas has been reported.