A Case of Adenocarcinoma of the Ovary which was Detected by the Mass Screening Vaginal Smear

Abstract

Adenocarcinoma cells of papillary cystadenocarcinoma of the ovary were found out, during mass screening, in the smear obtained from 46year old woman who had a normal hormonal cycle and have no subjective complaints. While many case-reports concerning ovarian cancers detected by the vaginal smear have been made, there have been only few reports of this kind in Japan. As four ovarian malignant tumors successively diagnosed by the vaginal smear for uterin cancer importance of the vaginal smear, should be reevaluated.
From the findings of this smear the presumptive site of the lesion could not be determined as to whether it was in the endmetrium or the ovary. In subsequent examinations of smear of uterine corpus, cervical canal, and histology of endmetrium, similar cancer cells were not detected at all. When adenocarcinomous cells, found out once, are not detected in subsequent examinations of the smears, we must emphasize that we should bear in mind the strong possibility that ovarian cancer is the origin of the malignant cells.
From the results of pathological examination of post operative specimens and the fact that the malignant cells were not detected in repeated subsequent examinations, the appearance of cancer cells in the vaginal smear was due to discharge of cancer cells from the peritoneal cavity into the vagina via the fallopian tube, uterine cavity and cervix. At the same time, the freshness of the adenocarcinoma cells, in spite of their long passage through the uterus, was to be noted.