Cytologic diagnosis of metastatic ovarian adenocarcinoma in the urinary bladder: a case report and review of the literature.

A 53-yr-old woman with a 13-mo history of recurrent ovarian papillary serous adenocarcinoma presented with persistent microscopic hematuria. The patient was undergoing chemotherapy for her recurrent ovarian tumor when she was referred to the urology service for microscopic hematuria. An intravenous pyelogram was normal. Cystoscopy was performed, as well as a urinary bladder washing and mucosal biopsies for examination. Adenocarcinoma similar to the patient's primary ovarian tumor was detected in both cytology and histopathology specimens. Ovarian carcinoma comprises 1.3-4.0% of all metastatic neoplasms to the urinary bladder and is an important consideration in the differential diagnosis of a cytologic finding of adenocarcinoma in urine specimens of female patients, where it accounts for an even higher percentage of cases (1 of 3 adenocarcinoma diagnoses in a series of 4,677 urine specimens from female patients).