Involvement of the central nervous system by ovarian carcinoma.

Ovarian carcinoma rarely metastasizes to the central nervous system (CNS). Of 110 patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma treated at the Northern Israel Oncology Center between the years 1979 and 1985, only five (4.5%) had CNS involvement. The median age of the patients with 54.5 years. All of them had treatment with cisplatin and Adriamycin (doxorubicin). The median duration from diagnosis to the development of brain involvement was 17 months. The median survival time was 28 months from diagnosis of carcinoma and 2 months from diagnosis of CNS disease. The increased incidence of this kind of metastasis in patients achieving local control of their advanced disease suggests that a change in the pattern of metastatic spread or the prolonged survival permits occult CNS metastases to become apparent. A routine computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan of the brain should therefore be performed on patients with ovarian carcinoma with prolonged survival.