Secondary ovarian malignancy of extragenital origin: clinical analysis of 42 cases

Forty-two patients with secondary ovarian cancer from extragenital sites encountered in the past 14 years at the National Taiwan University Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. They accounted for 11.6% (42/362) of all ovarian cancers. The mean age was 43.7 years, and 32 patients were premenopausal. Gastric cancer was the most frequent primary malignancy (50.0%); other sites of extragenital primaries were colon (23.8%), breast (11.9%), rectum (4.8%), and indeterminate (9.5%). Bilateral ovarian involvement was found in 78.6% of patients. The most common presenting symptom was abdominal distension (52%). All patients received surgical intervention as the primary treatment; 30 patients had subsequent chemotherapy and four patients had postoperative radiotherapy. However, the outcome was poor; more than half of the patients died within one year, with a two-year survival rate of 22.5%.