Uterine Sarcomas: An Updated Overview. Part 1: Smooth Muscle Tumors

Uterine sarcomas (USs) account for 3–9% of uterine malignant neoplasia and about 5%
of all gynaecologic malignancies. Despite their low prevalence, these tumors stimulate
a great interest because of their aggressiveness, poor prognosis and high mortality
rate. According to the last World Health Organization (WHO) classification and the
International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Committee (FIGO) staging,
USs are categorized as pure mesenchymal tumors (endometrial stromal sarcoma,
leiomyosarcoma and undifferentiated uterine), and mixed tumors (carcinosarcoma
and adenosarcoma). Due to their non-specific signs and symptoms, USs are commonly diagnosed in advanced stage, more often after surgery for a suspected
leiomyoma. Although surgery followed by adjuvant therapies represent the common
choices for USs, they show poor efficacy due to the early occurrence of metastasis, and
the high resistance of tumors to radio-and chemotherapy. Presently, specific expression profiles and new cytotoxic agents are under investigation. In these reviews, we
summarized clinical and pathological features, imaging characteristics, therapeutic
approaches, genomic and molecular aberration associated with smooth muscle neoplasia (Part 1) and endometrial stromal neoplasia (Part 2); the goal is to understand
the biology and the molecular signature of these tumors, in order to focus on their best
management.