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.

Prognostic Significance of Splenectomy as Part of Initial Cytoreductive Surgery in Ovarian Cancer

Note:  a similar paper regarding splenectomy - posted on this blog Sept 6, 2010




PURPOSE: 
 We sought to examine how splenectomy as part of up-front cytoreductive surgery in ovarian cancer influences the postoperative course and affects survival.

CONCLUSIONS: 
 The addition of splenectomy to up-front cytoreductive surgery was feasible and safe. However, it appears to carry with it a shortened survival that is unrelated to postoperative morbidity. Our data raise the questions that splenectomy is needed for optimal cytoreduction in more biologically aggressive disease and that splenectomy may be an independent prognostic factor related to depressed immune function.

Increased Incidence of Visceral Metastases in Scottish Patients With BRCA1/2-Defective Ovarian Cancer: An Extension of the Ovarian BRCAness Phenotype

Note: see abstract for further information

Results:
Seventy-nine patients with EOC/PPC and germline BRCA1/2 mutations were identified. Fifteen had inadequate clinical data, two had carcinosarcoma, 27 had previous breast cancer, and 16 were in remission. Of the remaining 19 patients who were BRCA1/2 deficient, 14 patients (74%) developed visceral metastases compared with six (16%) of 38 patients in the control group. The percentages of liver, lung, and splenic metastases were 53%, 32%, and 32%, respectively, in the patients compared with 5%, 3%, and 5%, respectively, in the controls.
Conclusion:
Although sporadic EOC commonly remains confined to the peritoneum, BRCA1/2-deficient ovarian cancer frequently metastasizes to viscera. These data extend the ovarian BRCAness phenotype, imply BRCA1/2-deficient ovarian cancer is biologically distinct, and suggest that patients with visceral metastases should be considered for BRCA1/2 sequencing.