Surprise Lymph Node Histology in a Patient with Ovarian Serous Carcinoma

Abstract

We report a case of a sixty-three-year-old Chinese female with a known past history of primary, biopsy-diagnosed, ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma. Following three cycles of chemotherapy, she underwent total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy cytoreductive surgery with lymphadenectomy, and multiple peritoneal biopsies. In this situation, the lymph nodes would be expected to demonstrate possible residual metastatic serous carcinoma with or without chemotherapy effect. The final diagnostic assessment in the lymph nodes, in this patient, however, was a rare combination of the following pathologies: metastatic serous carcinoma, with areas of chemotherapy effect, and incidental PEComatosis, focally in association with endometriosis, both within lymph nodes and surrounding connective tissue. PEComas have been described in patients with the tuberous sclerosis complex, but the current patient was not known to suffer from this condition. This case is also unusual, as although PEComas have been described as arising in the female genital tract, the associated phenomenon of endometriosis is exceedingly rare, and this is the first known reported case of lymph nodes harbouring a similar combination of pathologies.