The ECF regimen displays high anti-tumour activity with moderate toxicity in patients with gastric cancer and in some cases enabled resection of previously inoperable tumours.

BACKGROUND.The results of chemotherapy for patients with esophagogastric carci-

The ovary is a relatively frequent site of metastases from malignant neoplasms arising anywhere in the body. Ovarian metastases constitute 76% of genital tract metastases from extragenital primary tumours, of which 78% arise in the gastrointestinal tract (Mazur et al., 1984). Secondary tumours of the ovary constitute 10% of all ovarian neoplasms (Blaustein, 1982). In premenopausal women with colorectal cancer the incidence of ovarian metastases either found at the time of initial surgery or developing subsequently is reported to be between 13.2% and 25% (Recalde et al., 1974;Walton et al., 1976; MacKeigan and Ferguson, 1979). Similar rates have been reported for stomach cancer (Warren and Macomber, 1935;Webb et al., 1975). The term 'Krukenberg tumour' has become dinically synonymous with the pnce of any metastasis to the ovaries, although purists contend that true Krukenberg tumours should meet the criteria established by Novak and Gray in 1938 and currently used by the WHO (Serov and Scully, 1973):(1) presence of cancer in the ovary; (2) intracellular mucin production by neoplastic signet-ring cells; and (3) diffuse sarcomatoid proliferation of the ovarian stroma When lesions of this particular histology are analysed in terms of the primary neoplasn, gastric carcinoma is the most common source of ovarian metastases (Hale, 1968;Woodruff and Novak, 1960). Other ovarian metastases are of nonKrukenberg type and at times may be difficult to distinguish from primary ovanan carcnoma. The frequent use of computeised tomographic (CT) nning nowadays to assess and follow up patients with tumours of the gastrointestinal tract results in the discovery of otherwise unsuspected ovarian metastases, the features of which are described in a separate report (in preparation). Many of the patients in this report did not have histological confirmation of malignancy in the ovary because they had never undergone oophorectomy.

Almost all normal pelvic nodes are less than 10 mm MSAD, depending on the site. The low sensitivity of CT in depicting metastases to the pelvic lymph nodes might be improved by adopting upper limits of normal that reflect this size.

No abstract