Presentation and Prognosis of Primary Expansile and Infiltrative Mucinous Carcinomas of the Ovary

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate evolution and prognosis of mucinous ovarian carcinomas (mOC), with respect to the two invasive patterns: expansile and infiltrative invasion. Methods: This was a descriptive, retrospective, multicenter study conducted in 13 French centres from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2019. All patients operated on for epithelial ovarian neoplasia of the mucinous type (infiltrative/expansile) were included, whether the surgery was performed immediately or after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Results: A total of 94 women with mucinous carcinomas were included in the present study. Mucinous tumours were divided into 35 expansile (37%) and 59 infiltrative (63%) mOC. There was a statistically significant difference in early and late stages at initial diagnosis between expansile and infiltrative mOC. None of the expansile mOC showed metastatic lymph nodes, whereas almost a quarter of the infiltrative mOC were metastatic to the pelvic/para-aortic region. There was a clear difference in RFS, in favour of expansile mOC, with 90% survival at 5 years, compared with 60% for infiltrative mOC. Conclusions: Although infiltrative and expansile mOC belong to the same histological family, they present many distinctions in clinical presentation, histological invasion, and disease course.