Late metastatic endometrial carcinoma at the repair site of an abdominal wall incisional hernia

Abstract

The abdominal wall is a very rare site for endometrial cancer metastases. Its appearance generally indicates advanced cancer with poor prognosis. We report a case of a 55-year-old female who presented with an incisional hernia 4 years after abdominal panhysterectomy for endometrioid adenocarcinoma in 2009. Open hernia mesh repair was performed but on follow-up, she complained of pain and a swelling at the repair site. This was radiologically diagnosed as fibromatosis, but tru-cut biopsy confirmed presence of fibromatosis as well as a metastatic endometrial carcinoma. She was started on neoadjuvant chemotherapy, but had poor response, and therefore, radical excision was performed. She remained well with no metastatic recurrence at 12-month followup. This case illustrates late appearance of abdominal wall metastasis from abdomino-pelvic malignancies and highlights the need to exclude the presence of recurrence or metastases prior to surgical repair of incisional hernia occurring after the resection of abdominal or pelvic malignancy.