paywalled: CT diagnosis of intrasplenic metastasis from ovarian carcinoma

CT diagnosis of intrasplenic metastasis from ovarian carcinoma

 We concluded that CT can demonstrate intraparenchymal and infiltrative splenic metastasis in patients with ovarian cancer even in the absence of increased CA 125 levels.

Concepts of metastasis in flux: The stromal progression model

Wiki:
In cell biology, stromal cells are connective tissue cells of any organ, for example in the uterine mucosa (endometrium), prostate, bone marrow, and the ovary. They are cells that support the function of the parenchymal cells of that organ. Fibroblasts, immune cells, pericytes, and inflammatory cells are the most common types of stromal cells.
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Concepts of metastasis in flux: The stromal progression model: Publication year: 2012

Source: Seminars in Cancer Biology, Available online 21 February 2012

Abstract:

The ability of tumor cells to leave a primary tumor, to disseminate through the body, and to ultimately seed new secondary tumors is universally agreed to be the basis for metastasis formation. An accurate description of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie this multistep process would greatly facilitate the rational development of therapies that effectively allow metastatic disease to be controlled and treated.

A number of disparate and sometimes conflicting hypotheses and models have been suggested to explain various aspects of the process, and no single concept explains the mechanism of metastasis in its entirety or encompasses all observations and experimental findings.

The exciting progress made in metastasis research in recent years has refined existing ideas, as well as giving rise to new ones. In this review we survey some of the main theories that currently exist in the field, and show that significant convergence is emerging, allowing a synthesis of several models to give a more comprehensive overview of the process of metastasis.

As a result we postulate a stromal progression model of metastasis. In this model, progressive modification of the tumor microenvironment is equally as important as genetic and epigenetic changes in tumor cells during primary tumor progression. Mutual regulatory interactions between stroma and tumor cells modify the stemness of the cells that drive tumor growth, in a manner that involves epithelial-mesenchymal and mesenchymal-epithelial-like transitions. Similar interactions need to be recapitulated at secondary sites for metastases to grow. Early disseminating tumor cells can progress at the secondary site in parallel to the primary tumor, both in terms of genetic changes, as well as progressive development of a metastatic stroma.

Although this model brings together many ideas in the field, there remain nevertheless a number of major open questions, underscoring the need for further research to fully understand metastasis, and thereby identify new and effective ways of treating metastatic disease.

Two cases of ovarian metastasis of colon cancer

Ovarian tumors were diagnosed as metastasis from colon cancer. Ovarian metastasis of colon cancer is a relatively rare event, but a long-term survival case has been reported by multimodality therapy including surgery.

abstract: The spread pattern of right and left epithelial ovarian cancers

OBJECTIVE: No attention has been paid in the past to the spread pattern of right and left epithelial carcinomas of the ovaries. We aimed to investigate the incidence, spread pattern and distribution of lymph node metastasis in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), comparing right versus left EOC of any stage, where the contralateral ovary is apparently and histologically tumor-free.

abstract: Ovarian Cancer Development and Metastasis American Journal of Pathology

Update on Paraneoplastic Neurologic Disorders

Note:  very complicated condition/conditions/subsets of conditions and requires specialist consultation/s.

"When patients with cancer develop neurologic symptoms, common causes include metastasis, infections, coagulopathy, metabolic or nutritional disturbances, and neurotoxicity from treatments. A thorough clinical history, temporal association with cancer therapies, and results of ancillary tests usually reveal one of these mechanisms as the etiology. When no etiology is identified, the diagnosis considered is often that of a paraneoplastic neurologic disorder (PND). With the recognition that PNDs are more frequent than previously thought, the availability of diagnostic tests, and the fact that, for some PNDs, treatment helps, PNDs should no longer be considered diagnostic zebras, and when appropriate should be included in the differential diagnosis early in the evaluation."

Ovarian metastasis following gallbladder carcinoma

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Mucinous ovarian cancer raises problems of differential diagnoses because it is often difficult to distinguish the primary from the metastatic form. Most metastatic ovarian tumors originate from the gastrointestinal tract, mainly colorectal, gastric, pancreatic; the gallbladder is a very rare source of ovarian metastases.
CASE: We report a case of ovarian metastases from a gallbladder cancer, incidentally diagnosed more than 2.5 years earlier during a laparoscopic intervention for biliary lithiasis.
CONCLUSION: The interest of this case lies in the long progression-free survival, the venous thromboembolism syndrome that preceded by a few months the diagnosis of the ovarian mass and the discrepancy between the radiologic and the laparoscopic stage assessment.

A genomic and transcriptomic approach for a differential diagnosis between primary and secondary ovarian carcinomas in patients with a previous history of breast cancer.

ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND: The distinction between primary and secondary ovarian tumors may be challenging for pathologists. The purpose of the present work was to develop genomic and transcriptomic tools to further refine the pathological diagnosis of ovarian tumor after a previous history of breast cancer.

METHODS: Sixteen paired breast-ovary tumors from patients with a former diagnosis of breast cancer were collected.. ... A hierarchical clustering of these samples was performed, combined with a dataset of well-identified primary and secondary ovarian tumors.

RESULTS: In 12 of the 16 paired tumors analyzed, the comparison of genomic profiles confirmed the pathological diagnosis of primary ovarian tumor (n = 5) or metastasis of breast cancer (n = 7). Among four cases with uncertain pathological diagnosis, genomic profiles were clearly distinct between the ovarian and breast tumors in two pairs, thus indicating primary ovarian carcinomas, and showed common patterns in the two others, indicating metastases from breast cancer.
CONCLUSIONS: In patients with ovarian carcinoma and a previous history of breast cancer, SNP array analysis can be used to distinguish primary and secondary ovarian tumors. Transcriptomic analysis may be used when primary breast tissue specimen is not available.