Other rare cervical cancers: cervical rhabdomyosarcoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, verrucous carcinoma

Introduction

The overwhelming majority of cervical cancer cases will be either squamous cell or adenocarcinoma. In a National Cancer Database (NCDB) study of cervical cancer in the United States, 79.5% of cervical cancer cases consisted of the squamous cell subtype, 19.0% were adenocarcinoma, and 1.5% were high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma. These estimates round to 100% meaning that there are very few cervical cancer cases of the ultra-rare subtypes such as rhabdomyosarcoma, clear cell carcinoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, or verrucous carcinoma. In fact, the majority of the literature for these subtypes comes from case reports of single patients, small case series that span decades, and population database studies whose data sources lack the details necessary to make any specific treatment recommendations. In this chapter, we will review these ultra-rare subtypes and attempt to make recommendations for treatment based on the current literature as well as drawing from similar histologic subtypes from other primary tumor sites (for clear cell cervical cancer, see Chapter 16 on clear cell vaginal cancer).