Cytoreductive surgery for advanced stage ovarian cancer in the second trimester of pregnancy—a case report and literature review

RATIONALE: Advanced stage ovarian cancer is rarely encountered in pregnant women, due to the high number of ultrasound imagistic studies performed during this period. The clinical course of patients diagnosed with advanced stage ovarian cancer is similar in pregnant and nonpregnant women. PATIENT CONCERNS: We present the case of a 27-year-old woman initially submitted to emergency surgery for ovarian cyst torsion in the ninth week of gestation, at that moment ovarian cystectomy being performed. DIAGNOSES: The histopathological studies demonstrated the presence of a moderately differentiated epithelial ovarian cancer. INTERVENTIONS: Although the interdisciplinary team decided for staging surgery followed by platinum-based chemotherapy beginning from the second trimester of pregnancy, both the patient and her family refused this strategy and opined for total hysterectomy en bloc with bilateral adnexectomy. Surprisingly, intraoperatively both ovaries had a tumoral aspect, whereas peritoneal carcinomatosis nodules were found in the Douglas pouch. Therefore, the neoplastic process was staged as a IIIC epithelial ovarian cancer, a total hysterectomy with bilateral adnexectomy, Douglas pouch peritonectomy, omentectomy, pelvic and para-aortic lymph node dissection being performed. OUTCOMES: The patient was discharged in the sixth postoperative day and was confined to the oncology service in order to be submitted to the standard taxanes and platinum based chemotherapy. LESSONS: Although ovarian cancer has been rarely reported during pregnancy, this diagnostic should be taken in consideration whenever persistent adnexal masses are encountered.