Abstract
Background and purpose
In female colorectal cancer patients, a mean proportion of synchronous and/or metachronous ovarian metastases of 3.4% was described. Previous literature showed that young or premenopausal women (≤ 55 years of age) may be more frequently affected. Once ovarian metastases are diagnosed, the prognosis of the patient is generally dismal, with 5-year survival varying from 12 to 27%.
The present study is aimed at determining the proportion of young or premenopausal women diagnosed with colorectal cancer who presented with or developed ovarian metastases by reviewing the current literature on this topic.
Methods
This review was performed by querying MEDLINE and EMBASE databases using a combination of terms: “colorectal neoplasms, colorectal cancer, ovarian neoplasms, Krukenberg tumor, young adult, young age, premenopause.” Studies that indicated ovarian metastases, either synchronous or metachronous (or a combination of the two), in young women were retrieved and analyzed.
Results
The review identified 14 studies encompassing 3379 young or premenopausal female colorectal cancer patients. In this selected group of patients, a mean proportion of ovarian metastases of 4.6% [95% CI: 4.0;5.4] was found.
Conclusions
This review showed that approximately one in twenty young female colorectal cancer patients will present with or develop ovarian metastases. Since outcome of this specific oncological pathology is often dismal, this finding is clinically relevant. It demonstrates the need to develop strategies to lower the incidence of ovarian metastases with adequate treatment and counseling of these patients.
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All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Literature search and data analysis was performed by van der Meer. The first draft of the manuscript was written by van der Meer and all the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript. All the authors (van der Meer; Bakkers; Rostamkhan; de Hingh; Roumen) contributed equally to this manuscript.
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van der Meer, R., Bakkers, C., Rostamkhan, E. et al. Ovarian metastases from colorectal cancer in young women: a systematic review of the literature. Int J Colorectal Dis 36, 2567–2575 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00384-021-04012-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00384-021-04012-7