Introduction: Metastatic involvement of the mediastinal lymph nodes is an extremely uncommon finding in epithelial ovarian cancers.
Case report: A 63-year-old woman was admitted to hospital for dyspnoea due to an anterior mediastinal mass. The surgical biopsy showed a 6-cm metastatic lymph node with a papillary pattern, scattered psammomas and immunoreactivity for WT1, Cytokeratin 7, EMA and negative for E-cadherin, GCFDP-15, Thyroglobulin, Cytokeratin 20, Cytokeratin 5/6, CEA, Vimentin, Calretinin, TTF1. After 20 months a follow-up CT identified an ovarian mass with the same histological pattern and immunoreactivity of the mediastinal nodule.
Results: Immunohistochemistry, especially WT1, is useful in assessing the ovarian origin of an unusual metastasis particularly if it is the first presentation of the disease.