Cytophotometric study of DNA content of ovarian epithelial tumours

ABSTRACT

In the present study, 60 cases of ovarian epithelial tumours were examined [11 benign and 49 malignant ones]. Ten cases of normal ovarian tissure were used as control. Malignant tumours were staged according to FIGO Staging System. They were examined histopathologically and graded according to modified Broder's classification. DNA contents of these neoplasms were studied by cytophotometry. All benign tumours were diploid. However, 65.31% of malignant tumours were aneuploid and the rest were diploid. It was observed also that ploidy in early stage tumours [42.8%] were less than in late stage tumours [69%]. This study indicated also that all grade 3 tumours were aneuploid, whereas 58.8% of grade 2 and 50% of grade 1 were aneuploid. These findings show that there is a tendency for prevelance of aneuploidy in high grade ovarian epithelial tumours. It was observed also that there is a different in ploidy level in different types of tumours examined. Aneuploid was present in 71.9% of serous cystadenocarcinoma, 37.5% of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma, 40% of endometroid and all undifferentiated and clear cell carcinoma. It was concluded that there is a good correlation between cytophotometric, clinical and histopathological studies regarding types, stages and grades. This justifies the use of cytophotometry as an adjunct for evaluation of epithelial ovarian tumours