Two BRCA1-positive epithelial ovarian tumors with metastases to the central nervous system: A case report

Background. Cerebral metastasis secondary to ovarian cancer is a rare pheno menon. While no clear relationship to known prognostic factors is found, ot hers suggest this as a biologically diverse behavior of ovarian cancer. Cases. In a pilot study, 37 invasive epithelial ovarian cancer samples were analyzed to detect the frequency of BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations in the south of Sweden (results published). A retrospective follow-up revealed that 2 of th ese (2/37; 5.4%) patients developed central nervous system metastases durin g the course of their disease. Both patients had advanced surgical stage di sease at the time of diagnosis, with histopathological serous type tumors t hat were negative for estrogen and progesterone receptors. One of these pat ients carried a germline BRCA1 mutation, whereas a somatic BRCA1 mutation w as identified in the other patient. Conclusions. To the best of our knowledge the molecular genetic profile of these tumors is not found in the literature and it is suggested that such a nalyses could provide some insight for a better understanding of this rare phenomenon. (C) 2001 Academic Press.