[Ovarian metastasis of breast cancer: a case report. Role of cytoreductive surgery]

The Challenge of Evaluating Adnexal Masses in Patients With Breast Cancer

This narrative literature review addresses the problem of an adnexal mass discovered during the course of breast cancer (BC) care, which may represent a benign condition, a metastatic process, or a primary ovarian cancer (OC), clinical scenarios associated with distinct physiopathology and prognosis. Furthermore, the coexistence of BC and OC in the same patient may be owing to a hereditary disorder, deserving specific management strategies and counseling. The initial detection and evaluation of an adnexal mass in a patient with BC requires a high index of suspicion, and the initial workup should include a thorough medical history and physical examination, measurement of tumor markers, complete blood count, and imaging tests. Transvaginal ultrasonography remains the standard tool, and findings suggestive of malignancy include bilateral tumors, thick septations, predominance of a solid component, Doppler flow to the solid component, and ascites. From the pathology point of view, features that are suggestive of metastatic disease include bilaterality, mild ovarian enlargement, vascular emboli, no omental deposits, and the absence of transition from benign to malignant epithelium. Although there is a considerable overlap in OC and BC immunohistochemical profiles, BC usually stain positive for GCDFP-15 and negative for vimentine, PAX8, and WT1, and OC often stain positive for CK7, PAX8, WT1, and to mesothelin. Genetic counselling should always be indicated in this clinical scenario. In conclusion, diagnostic spectrum of an ovarian mass in a patient with BC is broad, and a systematic multi-professional strategy is necessary to conduct these challenging cases.

A framework for a personalized surgical approach to ovarian cancer

The standard approach for the treatment of advanced-stage ovarian cancer is upfront cytoreductive surgery followed by a combination of platinum-based and taxane-based chemotherapy. The extent of residual disease following upfront cytoreductive surgery correlates with objective response to adjuvant chemotherapy, rate of pathological complete response at second-look assessment operations, and progression-free survival and overall survival. Contemporary data and meta-analyses indicate a correlation between volume of residual disease and patient outcome, with those patients undergoing complete gross resection having the best outcomes. Thus, attention has focused on surgical efforts to remove as much disease as possible with the metric of 'optimal' cytoreduction being R0 disease. Because patients with R0 resection seem to have the best overall outcomes, preoperative or intraoperative assessment to avoid unnecessary primary debulking surgery has become common. The use of serum CA-125 levels, physical examination and CT imaging have lacked accuracy in determining if disease can be optimally debulked. Therefore, an algorithm that identifies patients in whom complete gross resection at primary surgery is likely to be achieved would be expected to improve patient survival. We discuss contemporary definitions of 'optimal' residual disease, and opportunities to personalize surgical therapy and improve the quality of surgical care.