Leiomyosarcoma
Gynecological cancers metastasizing to the spine are rare. In a series, overall survival following diagnosis of spinal metastases and surgery was 27 months, with cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, and leiomyosarcoma survival being 32, 26, and 20 months, respectively. Combined with literature cases, survival differs depending on primary histology, with decreasing survival from cervical cancer (32 months) to leiomyosarcoma (22.5 months) to endometrial cancer (10 months). Integrating such information with other patient factors may more accurately guide decision making regarding management of such spinal lesions 1).
Case reports
2015
Strong et al. describe the case of a patient who initially presented with uterine leiomyosarcoma (LMS) that later metastasized to the spine. The patient was treated at another institution for her primary uterine LMS, undergoing resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. After several years of disease remission, the patient presented in January 2011 to the authors' institution with recurrent uterine LMS metastatic to the spine, which has been treated with multiple therapeutic modalities in a combination of surgery, radiosurgery, and chemotherapy. As a result of this approach, the patient has been progression free for 35 months since her presentation (April 2011 to March 2014). They suggest that patients with recurrent uterine LMSs should be considered for treatment using a multimodality approach with emphasis on enrollment into clinical trials 2).
2014
A 12-year-old girl with Fanconi anemia presented with a primary intracranial leiomyosarcoma arising from the torcular Herophili and infiltrating the adjacent venous sinuses after previous allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Radical tumor resection followed by radiotherapy resulted in tumor-free survival and good outcome at a 2-year follow-up.
Despite occurrence of leiomyosarcoma in a site thought unfavorable for surgery, combined tumor resection and radiosurgery may yield excellent outcome 3).
A patient with leiomyosarcoma passed away within several weeks of treatment secondary to disseminated extracranial primary disease 4).