Recurrent ovarian granulosa cell tumors: clinical and imaging features

Granulosa cell tumor of the ovary differs from epithelial ovarian tumors in histologic appearance, clinical course and imaging findings. The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinical and imaging features of recurrent ovarian granulosa cell tumors.

We performed retrospective evaluation of the medical, surgicopathologic records and CT or MR images of 11 patients with pathologically proven recurrent ovarian granulosa cell tumor.

The first recurrence of granulosa cell tumor was diagnosed at between 4 months and 18 years after the initial surgical resection of tumor (mean; 9.7 years). Six patients relapsed after 10 years after initial diagnosis. The recurrent tumors were located in the pelvic cavity alone in three patients, extrapelvic peritoneal cavity alone in two, both pelvic and extrapelvic peritoneal cavity in three, and paraaortic retroperitoneal space in three. The imaging appearances of recurrent masses were variable ranging from solid masses to completely cystic masses.

Recurrent granulosa cell tumor is characterized by late tumor recurrence manifested as a relatively small number of discrete peritoneal or retroperitoneal masses with variable imaging appearances from solid to cystic masses.