yolk sac tumor of the female genital tract

Associations

 immature teratoma
 endometrioid adenocarcinoma
 high grade serous carcinoma (HGSC)
 clear cell carcinoma
 borderline clear cell adenofibroma
 endometrioid adenocarcinoma
 serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma
 large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma

Pathologists should be aware of the association between yolk sac tumor (YST) and an epithelial neoplasm, the former probably arising from the latter through a process of neometaplasia/ retrodifferentiation.

Those rare gynaecological pure glandular YSTs in adults may arise secondary to total overgrowth of an epithelial neoplasm.

Pathologists need a high index of suspicion to diagnose the YST component since the morphology is characteristically of a glandular variant with marked morphological overlap with adenocarcinomas.

There is also often significant immunophenotypic overlap with epithelial neoplasms since the YST component may be positive with EMA, BerEP4 and CK7, as well as YST markers.

The term "somatically derived YSTs" has been proposed for these neoplasms and suggest unification of the terminology between different sites where such neoplasms occur. (doi : 10.1111/his 13021 )

References

 Yolk Sac Tumours of the Female Genital Tract in Older Adults Commonly Derive from Somatic Epithelial Neoplasms: Somatically Derived Yolk Sac Tumours. 2016. doi : 10.1111/his 13021