Correlation of Histologic Findings of Ovarian Epithelial Tumors with Expression of Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen and Flow Cytometric DNA Analysis

ABSTRACT

The prognosis of malignant ovarian tumor is poorer than that of borderline malignant ovarian tumor, Therefore an accurate diagnosis and estimation of the biologic behavior of the tumor are necessary for proper management of the patient. The histologic investigation of the tumor may provide information on the estimation of the malignant potential of tumor cells, but it may be a questionable method because of the subjective determination of tumor grade. Quantification of proliferative activity of tumor cells may play a role as an objective method to provide an estimation of the malignant potential of tumor cells. An evaluation of histologic findings was done on 84 cases of ovarian mucinous and serous tumors that were surgically resected and diagnosed during the period from January 1981 through July 1992. The proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCN A) labelling index estimated from the immunohistochemical stain for PCN A and the Sphase fraction and porliferative index obtained from flow cytometric DN A analysis were assessed each other with histologic findings. The results are as follows The presence of aneuploidy in malignant tumors was statistically significant as compared with benign tumors. The borderline malignant tumors showed no significant difference between the number of diploidy and aneuploidy. The PCNA labelling index, S-phase fraction and proliferative index tended to increase as the histologic grade of tumors went up. They were higher in malignant tumors than in others. The PCN A labelling index, S-phase fraction and proliferative index were higher in tumors with aneuploidy than in those with diploidy. In contrast to borderline malignant tumors, the PCNA labelling index in malignant tumors revealed a significant relation with the mitotic index. The S-phase fraction and proliferative index showed, in malignant tumors, a close correlation with the architectural grade and nucleolar grade, but not in borderline malignant tumors. Considering these results, the presence of aneuploidy, PCNA label.