A 37-year-old woman who had never given birth went to a gynecology clinic with two weeks of pain in her right lower abdomen and on-and-off fever with chills. An MRI showed a complex cystic mass involving her right ovary and fallopian tube that measured about 11 centimeters at its longest, and a blood test showed an elevated level of CA-125, a protein doctors often check when a pelvic mass raises the question of ovarian cancer.
The final diagnosis was not cancer. Pathologists found xanthogranulomatous salpingo-oophoritis, a rare and destructive form of chronic inflammation of the tube and ovary. In her opposite ovary, they found something even more unexpected: bone. Pathologists at Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital in Puducherry, India, described the case in the Journal of Medical Sciences and Health, in a report published June 12, 2026.
