Colonic metastases 13 years after the primary ovarian cancer: a case study with a brief review of literature

Abstract

Metastatic ovarian malignancy is a known and dreaded complication of ovarian malignancy. Ovarian malignancies primarily disseminate through the peritoneal cavity and are only superficially invasive. They rarely metastasise through the haematogenous route, but that occurs in the presence of heavy peritoneal disease. The involvement of the colon in advanced ovarian malignancy is mostly through the peritoneal seedlings. It is very rare for an ovarian malignancy to invade through the serosa into the submucosa and mucosa of an adjacent colonic segment in the absence of active peritoneal disease. This occurring 13 years after the primary malignancy and after receiving a full course of chemotherapy is very interesting. There is always a possibility of a second primary cancer but in this case immunohistochemistry clearly clinched the diagnosis of an ovarian metastasis to the colon.