Cytologic diagnosis of metastatic ovarian adenocarcinoma in the urinary bladder: A case report and review of the literature

A 53-yr-old woman with a 13-mo history of recurrent ovarian papillary serou s adenocarcinoma presented with persistent, microscopic hematuria. The pati ent was undergoing chemotherapy! Sur her recurrent ovarian tumor when she w as referred to the urology service for microscopic hematuria. An intravenou s pyelogram was normal. Cystoscopy was performed as well as a urinary bladd er washing and mucosal biopsies for examination. Adenocarcinoma similar to the patient's primary ovarian tumor was detected in both cytology and histo pathology specimens. Ovarian carcinoma comprises 1.3-4.0% of all metastatic neoplasms to the urinary bladder and is an important consideration in the differential diagnosis of a cytologic finding of adenocarcinoma in urine sp ecimens of female patients, where it accounts for an even higher percentage of cases (1 of 3 adenocarcinoma diagnoses in a series of 4,677 urine speci mens from female patients). (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.