title: Female urethral adenocarcinoma with a heterogeneous phenotype.
abstract: We here report a very rare case of female urethral adenocarcinoma. A 77-year-old woman presented with urinary retention. Cystoscopy showed a urethral tumor and the biopsy material showed adenocarcinoma. Macroscopically, the tumor measuring 3.0 x 3.0 x 2.4 cm was predominantly observed around the periurethral area on the proximal side. Histologically, patterns of columnar/mucinous adenocarcinoma, clear cell adenocarcinoma and papillary/micropapillary carcinoma were observed, but there was no evidence of a cribriform pattern. Immunohistochemically, neoplastic cells of at least one of three components were positive for CK7 and CK20 or CA125. We suggest that female urethral adenocarcinoma with a histologically and immunohistochemically heterogeneous phenotype may originate from cells within urethral or paraurethral tissue, such as urethritis glandularis or intestinal metaplastic epithelium and Mullerian tissue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Kochi Red Cross Hospital, Kochi, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shiotsu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ohara
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirouchi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D000368:Aged; D018394:CA-125 Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007120:Immunochemistry; D053554:Keratin-20; D053552:Keratin-7; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis; D010641:Phenotype; D014523:Urethral Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D018394:CA-125 Antigen; C507499:KRT20 protein, human; C507497:KRT7 protein, human; D053554:Keratin-20; D053552:Keratin-7; D007633:Keratins