Ovarian tumors: Should the cervix be examined first

There is a controversy regarding ovarian metastasis in early-stage adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix. The authors present the case of a 51-year-old woman that at the time of diagnosis was thought to suffer from a Stage II cervical carcinoma and a synchronous ovarian carcinoma, that turned out to be an ovarian metastasis from the endocervical adenocarcinoma, as attested morphologically, histochemically, and immunohistochemically. Radical hysterectomy with oophorectomy, excision of the omentum, lymph node excision, and cytological sampling of the peritoneal cavity were carried out. It is important to always bear in mind that even low-grade adenocarcinomas of the cervix can be metastatic to the ovaries. Clinicians have to be careful when managing those cases, while further investigation is needed in order to determine the exact mechanism of those metastases and the criteria needed in order to preserve the ovaries in young patients.

Ovarian metastasis; Endocervical adenocarcinoma; Fertility-sparing surgery.

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