Adenomatous hyperplasia of the rete testis: A rare intrascrotal lesion managed with limited testicular excision

Abstract

Introduction: Testicular cancer is one of the most frequent in young men and its incidence is increasing in recent years because of incidental finding during routine ultrasound exams. Adenomatous hyperplasia of the rete testis is one of the benign and rare pathological types incidentally detected and very few cases are described in the literature. Case report: A 40 years old man come to our attention for a balanoposthitis without testicular pain. During andrological examination we performed palpation of the testes and we noticed a palpable nodule of hard consistency in the left testicle. We then performed an ultrasound exam of the testis which highlighted the presence of an intra-didymus neoformation with diameters of 1.2 x 1.6 cm and with the presence of cysts inside. We also performed blood tests to check tumor markers alpha fetoprotein, beta hCG and LDH which resulted inside the normal range. We then conducted a chest and abdomen CT scan that showed no pathological elements. Therefore, as we suspected that this tumor was benign, we performed an enucleation of the neoplasm. The definitive histological examination revealed the presence of dilated ducts lined with epithelial cubic-columnar cells with clear cytoplasm rich in glycogen and the pathologist so concluded that the tumor could be classified as adenomatous hyperplasia of the rete testis. At three months of follow up, the patient doesn’t have any recurrent lesion to either testicles. Discussion: Adenomatous hyperplasia of the rete testis is a very rare intrascrotal lesion. This histological type is the most frequent between benign lesion of the ovary, but few works in literature reported this histological type in the male gonad and, in most of these works, authors described these lesion at epididymis. Conclusion: We believe that a conservative approach must be considered mandatory in case of testicular lesions 1.5 cm in diameter. A radical approach might have alterate fertility of the patient and also have caused psychological trauma more than an enucleation. However a longer follow up is needed to understand if this was the right decision for the oncological point of view.