MRI appearances of pure epithelial papillary serous borderline ovarian tumours

Borderline epithelial ovarian tumours (BOT) represent 15–20% of all non-benign ovarian epithelial neoplasms. Compared to malignant ovarian tumours, they usually present at a younger age and carry a far superior prognosis. Fertility-conserving surgery is an important treatment option for patients with BOT. Ultrasound and CT are both widely available and play roles in the initial investigation and staging of BOT, respectively. However, lack of soft-tissue contrast limits their ability to characterize BOT. MRI can facilitate recognition of pure epithelial serous BOT (SBOT), including the cystic papillary and surface papillary subtypes. An abundance of hyperintense papillary projections with low signal internal branching and ovarian stroma preservation with a hypointense ovarian capsular margin on T2-weighted imaging are features strongly suggestive of SBOT. In this review we will discuss the general morphological features of SBOT, the benefits and drawbacks of ultrasound and CT in the initial work-up, and the principal MRI features enabling recognition of surface papillary and cystic papillary SBOT.