[Eosinophilia and a solid tumour: ovarian sarcoma]

A 50-year-old woman developed blood eosinophilia during admission to hospital in connection with abdominal symptoms. Eosinophilia is associated with a broad variety of diseases. The major causes of eosinophilia, i.e. an allergic reaction, a parasitic infection and a haematological malignancy, were ruled out. An ultrasound of the abdomen showed a large tumour in the lower abdomen which, because of the patient's history, was attributed to a uterine myoma. Later, this tumour proved to be a mesenchymal malignancy, and surgery was performed to remove it. Histopathology confirmed a high grade sarcoma which had its origin in the right ovary. It is known that eosinophilia can be a paraneoplastic sign of several carcinomas, but it has only infrequently been described in sarcomas. The pathophysiology of tumour-associated eosinophilia is unknown.