Female genital tract tuberculosis presenting as ovarian cancer

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is still a major worldwide concern. There is no pathognomonic clinical feature or imaging findings for definite diagnosis of extra pulmonary TB. Therefore, TB involvement of Gastrointestinal or Genitourinary tract can be easily confused with peritoneal carcinomatosis and advanced ovarian carcinoma. Our aim is to emphasize the importance of considering the disease based upon the epidemiologic clues of the patients, while interpreting the positive results for a suspicious ovarian malignancy. Cases: This paper illustrates 8 cases of ovarian or peritoneal tuberculosis, whose initial diagnoses were malignant processes of the
GU tract. Conclusion: Tuberculosis (TB) should be always being considered in the differential diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer,especially in the regions that are endemic for the disease.

Key words: Ovarian cancer, peritoneal tuberculosis, tuberculosis