[Desmoid tumor of rectus muscle of abdomen in a woman of childbearing age: what can we do?].

The desmoid tumor (DT) is a soft tissue neoplasm most frequently localized in the anterior abdominal wall typically in females of childbearing age. Because its particular incidence in women who had recently been pregnant, it was correlated with delivery's trauma stimulating proliferation of muscolo-aponeurotic tissues. Complete surgical resection is the recommended treatment approach to prevent recurrence. Many authors emphasize the role of radiotherapy in regression of DT and in controlling local recurrence in patient who had incomplete resection. Many others emphasize the role of chemotherapy or antiestrogenic compounds, even though tumour does not express estrogen receptors. DT, otherwise, is neoplasm with high rates of recurrence after surgery but it never develops distant metastases, so that function and structure-sparing surgery may be a reasonable choice in young women when possible without leaving macroscopic residual disease. Furthermore literature data suggest that the presence of incomplete histological surgical resection does not correlate with local recurrence and that pregnancy does not represent a risk factor. In women of childbearing age, even after non radical histological DT primary resection, adjunctive radiotherapy, chemotherapy or antiestrogen therapy could be avoided and clinical observation alone may be considered.