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Updated: Mar 13, 2026
Quantitation of Intra-peritoneal Ovarian Cancer Metastasis
Published on: July 18, 2016
Ovarian cancer presenting as an axillary mass: Case series and literature review
B Ilhan1, B Kılıç2, H Karanlik2
1Department of General Surgery, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Millet Caddesi, 34093 Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey.
Aim:
Ovarian cancer is a common cause of death in women worldwide. The purpose of this article was to report a case series and draw physicians' attention to the benefits of histpathologic techniques in determining uncommon metastatic diseases.
Methods:
In this study, we report a case series of axillary involvement of ovarian cancer in 6 patients. The data were collected between 2006 and 2015 by analyzing patient's characteristics, and biochemical and immunohistochemical features. No pathologic lesions were detected in breasts. Specific immunohistochemical methods such as GCDFP-15, CA12-5, WT-1, and PAX-8 supported evidence of metastasis from ovarian cancer to axillary lymph nodes.
Results:
Biochemical tests showed increased levels of CA12-5 in all patients. In 5 patients, GCDFP-15 was negative and WT-1 was positive with specific immunohistochemical staining. PAX-8 was positive in 3 of 5 patients.
Conclusions:
Physicians need to be aware that histopathologic and immunohistochemical results can make a significant contribution in determining the true primary tissue of metastatic adenocarcinoma, even in the absence of typical clinical findings.
