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Background: Elucidation of specific and recurrent/founder pathogenic variants (PVs) in BRCA (BRCA1 and BRCA2) genes can make the genetic testing, for breast cancer (BC) and/or ovarian cancer (OC), affordable for developing nations., Methods: To establish the knowledge about BRCA PVs and to determine the prevalence of the specific and recurrent/founder variants in BRCA genes in BC and/or OC women in North Africa, a systematic review was conducted in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia., Results: Search of the databases yielded 25 relevant references, including eleven studies in Morocco, five in Algeria, and nine in Tunisia. Overall, 15 studies investigated both BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, four studies examined the entire coding region of the BRCA1 gene, and six studies in which the analysis was limited to a few BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 exons. Overall, 76 PVs (44 in BRCA1 and32 in BRCA2) were identified in 196 BC and/or OC patients (129 BRCA1 and 67 BRCA2 carriers). Eighteen of the 76 (23.7%) PVs [10/44 (22.7%) in BRCA1 and 8/32 (25%) in BRCA2] were reported for the first time and considered to be novel PVs. Among those identified as unlikely to be of North African origin, the BRCA1 c.68_69del and BRCA1 c.5266dupC Jewish founder alleles and PVs that have been reported as recurrent/founder variants in European populations (ex: BRCA1 c.181T>G, BRCA1 c1016dupA). The most well characterized PVs are four in BRCA1 gene [c.211dupA (14.7%), c.798_799detTT (14%), c.5266dup (8.5%), c.5309G>T (7.8%), c.3279delC (4.7%)] and one in BRCA2 [c.1310_1313detAAGA (38.9%)]. The c.211dupA and c.5309G>T PVs were identified as specific founder variants in Tunisia and Morocco, accounting for 35.2% (19/54) and 20.4% (10/49) of total established BRCA1 PVs, respectively. c.798_799delTT variant was identified in 14% (18/129) of all BRCA1 North African carriers, suggesting a founder allele. A broad spectrum of recurrent variants including BRCA1 3279delC, BRCA1 c.5266dup and BRCA2 c.1310_1313detAAGA was detected in 42 patients. BRCA1 founder variants explain around 36.4% (47/129) of BC and outnumber BRCA2 founder variants by a ratio of ≈3:1., Conclusions: Testing BC and/or OC patients for the panel of specific and recurrent/founder PVs might be the most cost-effective molecular diagnosis strategy., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Struma ovarii is a rare tumor, which accounts for 2.7% of ovarian teratomas and 0.01% of ovarian tumors. It usually affects women in the fifth decades of life and is most often detected incidentally during ultrasound and then confirmed histologically. The gold standard treatment is surgery and prognosis is excellent. We here report the particular case of a young female patient with giant struma ovarii whose radiological features were classified as unusual presentation. We match patient's data with those from the literature., Competing Interests: Les auteurs ne déclarent aucun conflit d'intérêts.

Peritoneal tuberculosis is a curable infectious disease that can simulate advanced ovarian cancer, leading to extensive and unnecessary surgical procedures commonly performed on women of reproductive age. We report a new case of pseudo-tumoral peritoneal tuberculosis in a 43-year old female patient with suspected ovarian cancer associated with peritoneal carcinomatosis. The diagnosis of peritoneal tuberculosis was based on exploratory laparotomy with extemporaneous histological examination. The patient responded well to anti-tuberculosis treatment according to 2ERHZ/4RH protocol., Competing Interests: Les auteurs ne déclarent aucun conflit d’intérêt.

Paraneoplastic syndromes are a heterogeneous group of clinical and biological manifestations caused by underling neoplasms. They can reveal ovarian teratoma which express neuroendocrine proteins, or contain mature or immature neural tissue inducing an autoimmune response. The etiological investigation is then crucial to early identification of the tumor in order to optimize the prognosis and to limit neurological sequelae. In case of ovarian teratoma, management is essentially based on surgical resection sometimes associated with immunotherapie. We report two new cases of ovarian teratoma revealed by paraneoplastic syndromes in young and menopausal woman., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.

Ovarian fibroma is the most common benign solid tumors of the ovary, commonly misdiagnosed as uterine fibromaor as malignant ovarian tumors. It occurs generally in older perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. Occasionally large fibromas may undergo torsion causing acute abdominal pain. Doppler Ultrasonographyimaging is the choice study. CT and MRI are often needed for further characterization and differentiation from other solid ovarian masses. The choice treatment is surgical removal with intraoperative frozensection. Immunohistochemicalanalysis is recommended to rule out the differential diagnosis. Here we present a case of a postmenopausal woman with a large twisted ovarian fibroma reflecting diagnostic and management difficulties including potential misdiagnosis of the tumor as a malignant ovarian neoplasm that may influence the surgical approach.