Pervaginal cul-de-sac cytology and CT in the follow-up care of patients with advanced ovarian cancer

Abstract

Among 28 patients with advanced ovarian cancer (FIGO stage III) treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy there were 23 cases with residual malignant disease as revealed by "second-look" surgery. Preoperative studies including fine needle cul-de-sac washing samples (FD) for cytology and abdominopelvic computed tomography (CT) detected 13 tumors with residual disease. No false positive findings were encountered among preoperative studies. There were 2 cases in which both clinical examination and CT detected malignant growth. In 2 cases clinical examination revealed tumors not detected by CT. On the other hand in 3 cases CT found the residual disease. In 6 cases residual tumors were preoperatively detected only by FD cytology. Manually and radiologically undetectable tumors were greater than 1 cm in diameter in 7 cases, fine nodular involvements in 8 cases, and in 1 case the residual disease was only cytologically diagnosed.