A Recurrence of Ovarian Carcinoma Presenting as Only Axillary Lymphatic Metastasis: A Case Report

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common gynecologic carcinoma and one of the main causes of death from gynecologic malignancies.(1) Ovarian cancer generally presents with already advanced disease at the time of diagnosis and is known to have a poor prognosis due to such lack of symptom. A recurrence of ovarian cancer is commonly seen in the abdominopelvic cavity. The majority of described cases are associated with widespread malignancy and usually discovered incidentally at autopsy.(2, 3) There are primary breast and ovrian cancer commonly coexisting synchronously or metachronously, but metastases of ovarian carcinoma to axillary lymph node and breast are rare.(4-6) Since the incidence of metastatic ovarian cancer to the axillary lymph node is low, it is of great difficult to differentiate the metastatic cancer from primary breast cancer. However, its recognition and distinction from breast carcinoma are important because the treatment and prognosis of metastatic ovarian carcinoma differ from primary breast carcinoma significantly. Therefore, we report an experience of ovarian cancer patient with recurrence in axillary lymph node only.