[Indications for prophylactic ovariectomy in patients with colorectal carcinoma]

Metastasis of colorectal cancer to the ovaries presents in 2-8% of patients. Prevention of these metastasis with bilateral oophorectomy at the initial operation is quite simple, but nevertheless it produces an early menopause in premenopausal women and may add the morbility of the operation. Prophylactic oophorectomy is evaluated in a prospective study of 130 women that underwent surgery for adenocarcinoma of the large bowel. Forty-four of these patients underwent unilateral (10 patients) or bilateral (34 patients) oophorectomy along with the large bowel resection. Fifty-five women were submitted to colectomy alone, while 31 with or without oophorectomy were lost to the follow-up. Of the 44 women that underwent oophorectomy, 8 were premenopausal, while 36 were postmenopausal. The tumor was situated at the right colon in 5 out of the 44 patients that underwent oophorectomy and at the left colon in the remaining 39. According to Dukes classification, 5 tumors were Dukes A, 22 Dukes B and 17 Dukes C. Two of the 44 patients were found to harbour metastasis to the ovaries (4.5%). One of these patients was premenopausal (12.5%) and 1 was postmenopausal (2.7%). Of the 55 women that underwent colectomy, only one developed metastasis to the ovaries during the follow-up period (1.8%). No metastasis was detected at the resected ovary or at the remaining ovary during the follow-up period, among the patients that underwent unilateral oophorectomy. No complication directly related to the oophorectomy was noted.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)