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Benign Tumors

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Pathology of the Human Placenta

Abstract

With rare exceptions, vascular tumors are the only benign tumors of the placenta. Tumors designated chorioangiomas, chorangiomas, fibroangiomyxomas, fibromas, and the many other names that have been applied in the past are essentially similar, relatively common neoplasms of the placenta. Two large reviews have been published that bring together most of the literature. Fox (1967), who also reviewed the often confused nomenclature, indicated that Clarke described the first such tumor in 1798. Since then, the review by Siddall (1924) encompassed 130 cases, that by Marchetti (1939) comprised 209 cases, and Fox traced another 127 cases. Fox accounted for 344 published cases and gave incidence figures of 1 per 9,000 to 1 per 50,000 placentas. When careful study of placentas is undertaken, the real prevalence may be as high as 1 per 100 pregnancies, according to some authors, although in our experience this number is excessive. Wallenburg (1971) provided 13 new cases and summarized publications between 1939 and 1970. His reported incidence in consecutively collected placentas was 1 per 117. These authors provided an extensive literature documentation that would be redundant to repeat. Soma et al. (1991) found that the tumor existed in 0.2% of placentas in Japanese women but was more common (2.5–7.6%) in the high altitude population of Nepal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Medical Center, University of California, San Diego, 92103-8321, San Diego, California, USA

    Kurt Benirschke MD (Professor of Pathology and Reproductive Medicine)

  2. Institut für Anatomie der Medizinischen Fakultät, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 52057, Aachen, Germany

    Professor Dr. med. Peter Kaufmann

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  1. Kurt Benirschke MD
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  2. Professor Dr. med. Peter Kaufmann
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Benirschke, K., Kaufmann, P. (1995). Benign Tumors. In: Pathology of the Human Placenta. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4196-4_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4196-4_24

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