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 phenomenon. While no clear relationship to known prognostic factors is found, others 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 these (2/37; 5.4%) patients developed central nervous system metastases during the course of their disease. Both patients had advanced surgical stage disease at the time of diagnosis, with histopathological serous type tumors that were negative for estrogen and progesterone receptors. One of these patients carried a germline BRCA1 mutation, whereas a somatic BRCA1 mutation was 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 analyses could provide some insight for a better understanding of this rare phenomenon.