CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol 22, 357-359, Copyright
© 1972 by American Cancer Society
The PMPO Syndrome (Postmenopausal Palpable Ovary Syndrome)
Hugh R. K. Barber M.D.1 and
Edward A. Graber M.D.2
1 Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, New York; Attending Surgeon, Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases; Associate Attending Obstetrician Gynecologist, New York Hospital; and Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cornell Medical School, New York.
2 Attending Obstetrician-Gynecologist and Associate Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, New York.
If we are to save more women and diminish the mortality rate from ovarian cancer, we must become more liberal in our indications for operation. We suggest that the palpation of what appears to be a normal-sized ovary for a patient three to five years postmenopausal is indicative of an ovarian tumor and should be investigated promptly. These patients should not be followed and re-evaluated but rather subjected to proof as to the presence or absence of an ovarian tumor. To wait until one feels a solid tumor mass of up to 5 cm. and expect a cure is an exercise in fancy and futility.
John Gardner said, "We are all faced with wonderful opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems." Ovarian cancer is not insoluble. Perhaps, by adding a small segment at a time, the total picture will emerge to the benefit of our patients. Remember the PMPO Syndrome!
