Endocervical polyp

Cervix
Benign / nonneoplastic lesions
Endocervical polyp

Authors: Branko Perunovic, M.D., Marilin Rosa, M.D.

Revised: 18 May 2018, last major update June 2011

Copyright: (c) 2007-2018, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

PubMed Search: Endocervical polyp[title]

Table of Contents

Cite this page: Perunovic, B. Endocervical polyp. PathologyOutlines.com website. http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/cervixendocervpolyp.html. Accessed October 15th, 2018.

Definition / general

2 - 5% of adult women
Usually multigravida age 30 - 59 years
Produces bleeding or mucoid discharge
Probably secondary to chronic inflammation and not neoplastic

Clinical features

Endocervical polyps originate in the endocervical canal in 2 - 5% of women
May be benign or contain another lesions such as dysplasia or carcinoma
Benign polyps may be diagnosed as AGUS on cytologic smear (Acta Cytol 2000;44:41, Acta Cytol 1999;43:351)

Case reports

5 year old girl with multilocular cystic polyp (Pediatr Pathol 1993;13:415)
33 year old woman with heterologous cartilage and adipose tissue (Pathol Int 2001;51:305)

Clinical images

Images hosted on other servers:

Polyp

Gross description

Usually single, up to 1 cm
Rarely mimics malignant tumor protruding into endocervical canal

Microscopic (histologic) description

Dilated endocervical (mucus) glands in inflamed, myxoid stroma
Papillary endocervicitis if branching papillary structure
Surface epithelium may show squamous metaplasia
Thick walled blood vessels at base of polyp
No mitotic figures

Microscopic (histologic) images

Images hosted on PathOut server:

Contributed by Andrey Bychkov, M.D., Ph.D.

Endocervical polyp with Nabothian cysts

Images hosted on other servers:

Whole mount

Various images

Cytology description

Tridimensional groups of endocervical cells, may show squamous metaplasia, hyperchromasia, mitosis and cellular crowding limited to a few groups of cells only
Endocervical polyps are prone to ulceration that causes degenerative, reparative and metaplastic changes that can be seen on cytology; these changes may mimic dysplasia or glandular neoplasia
Benign polyps have no feathering, no nuclear palisading, no chromatin clearing
Rarely contains metastatic disease (Acta Cytol 1996;40:765)

Differential diagnosis

Adenosarcoma

Condyloma

Polypoid adenomyoma

Superficial cervicovaginal myofibroblastoma

Squamous dysplasia, glandular abnormalities