Morphologic and morphometric features of low grade serous tumors of the ovary

Abstract

Peritoneal washings of 12 patients with serous tumors of the ovary were studied. Six patients had borderline tumors, and six had grade one adenocarcinomas. Papanicolai stained slides were assessed for nine morpholigic parameters: background, single cells, papillary fragments, contour of papillary fragments, psamnioma bodies, cytoplasmic vacuoles, nuclear pleomorphism, nuclear membrane contour, and nucleoli. The slides were destained and restained by the Feulgen method, for assessment with a computer based image analysis system (CAS100, Cell Analysis Systems, Inc., Lombard, IL), of DNA content, nuclear size, and nuclear roundness. The contour of the papillary fragments (p=0.004) and the presence of nuclear pleomorphism (p=0.019) were distinguishing characteristics. All six borderline tumors were diploid while three of six adenocarcinomas had aneuploidy. The pooled data for the nuclear size and roundness showed little difference in the modal values, although the nuclei of the adenocarcinoma cells were slightly larger than those of the borderline cells (54 sq. microns vs 46 sq. microns). However, the coefficients of variation (CVs) for each of these parameters were larger In the adenocarcinoma group than in the borderline group (59.7% vs 36.4 % for size and 33.5% vs 17.8% for roundness) Although the sample size is small the data suggest that aneuploidy is rare in borderline tumors. In addition the presence of papillary groups with irregular contours, and nuclear pleomorphism (reflected in higher CVs for nuclear size and roundness) both occur more commonly in adenocarcinomas than in borderline tumors and may be of predictive value in distinguishing the two groups.