Desmoid tumor: musculoaponeurotic fibrosis of the abdominal wall.

A 26-year-old woman developed a desmoid tumor of the lower abdominal wall shortly after the birth of her fourth child. It measured 15 by 17 cm. and involved most of the lower abdominal wall of this small-framed woman. Operative removal would have been mutilating and almost surely doomed to failure. No treatment was given. Over a 5 year period, the tumor regressed and has disappeared almost completely. It was and has remained entirely asymptomatic. Desmoid tumors of the abdominal wall never metastasize, are asymptomatic, and may regress spontaneously. Since surgical treatment so often fails, it is felt that extensive or mutilating operations are not justified.