Giant cell carcinoma

Uterus
Endometrial carcinoma
Giant cell carcinoma

Author: Nat Pernick, M.D. (see Authors page)

Revised: 24 January 2017, last major update September 2011

Copyright: (c) 2002-2017, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

PubMed search: giant cell carcinoma uterus

Table of Contents

Definition / general | Case reports | Microscopic (histologic) images | Positive stains | Differential diagnosis

Cite this page: Giant cell carcinoma. PathologyOutlines.com website. http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/uterusgiantcell.html. Accessed July 16th, 2017.

Definition / general

High grade endometrial adenocarcinomas with a malignant giant cell component and aggressive clinical course (Int J Gynecol Pathol 1991;10:260)
Recent case series (Am J Surg Pathol 2010;34:1132), but overall very few cases reported
Rare, high grade tumor with poorly cohesive sheets and nests of bizarre, pleomorphic and multinucleated giant cells and mononuclear tumor cells
In contrast to osteoclast-like giant cell tumors, giant cells are clustered, and not evenly distributed
Usually coexists with endometrial adenocarcinoma
Also peritumoral and intratumoral inflammatory cell infiltrate of lymphocytes, plasma cells, eosinophils and neutrophils with emperipolesis

Case reports

70 year old woman with postmenopausal bleeding (Internet Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 2009;12(1))

Microscopic (histologic) images

Images hosted on PathOut server:

A single gland is present in this field,
but most of the tumor grows as
solid sheets of anaplastic cells,
many of which are multinucleate

Positive stains

Giant cells: focal staining for AE1 / AE3 and CAM 5.2

Differential diagnosis

Tumors with osteoclast-like giant cells resembling giant cell tumor of bone: giant cells and mononuclear cells are evenly distributed, not clustered (APMIS 2005;113:140, BMC Cancer 2007 Mar 14;7:46)