Cannabinoid receptor type 1 immunoreactivity and disease severity in human epithelial ovarian tumors

OBJECTIVE

In light of recent findings indicating that endocannabinoid system has antitumor actions, our study aimed to localize it in the human epithelial ovarian tumors, highlighting the differences among benign, borderline, and invasive forms and correlating cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1R) expression with disease severity.

STUDY DESIGN

We determined CB1R immunohistochemical expression in 66 epithelial ovarian tumors treated in the Department of Woman, Child, and General and Specialized Surgery, Second University of Naples, at S. Maria del Popolo degli Incurabili Hospital (Naples): 36 borderline ovarian tumors, the main target of interest being intermediate forms, 15 benign and 15 invasive ovarian tumors.

RESULTS

The benign ovarian tumors showed a weak expression of CB1R in the 33% of the cases and moderate expression in the 67% of the cases. Borderline ovarian tumors had a similar trend. They showed weak CB1R expression in 28% of the cases, moderate expression in 53% of the cases, and strong expression in 19% of the cases. In contrast, invasive tumors showed a weak expression of CB1R in 7% of the cases, moderate expression in 20% of the cases, and strong expression in 73% of the cases.

CONCLUSION

The recorded data show that the expression of CB1R increased from benign and borderline to malignant tumors. In the near future, endocannabinoid receptors might be used in clinical practice, alone or in combination with other markers, to identify or better characterize ovarian tumors, without considering the great opportunity that they might represent as therapeutic targets.

A huge mucinous cystadenoma of ovarian: a rare case report and review of the literature

We report a case of a 63-years-old woman with a ten years history of increasing abdominal girth with associated abdominal pain. Abdomino-pelvic ultrasound and computed tomography scan revealed a large left ovarian cyst. The patient underwent laparotomy, resection of ovarian cyst and hysterectomy with bilateral ovarian resection. The removed huge mucinous cystadenoma, weighed 27 kg. Her post-operative course was unremarkable.

Assessment of the argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region area/nucleus ratio in ovarian serous epithelial adenomas, borderline tumors and cancers

INTRODUCTION

There is a need to assess the value of the novel potentially useful biomarkers in ovarian tumors. The aim of study was to assess the value of sAgNOR analysis in ovarian serous epithelial tumors.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The analysis was performed in ovaries from 113 patients treated operatively due to serous ovarian tumors (30 adenomas, 14 borderline tumors and 69 cancers). After silver staining of paraffin specimens from surgery, sAgNOR in tumor cells was analyzed. Additionally, the value of the argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region area/nucleus ratio (sAgNOR) in the prediction of disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in 52 patients with serous ovarian cancer with complete follow-ups in November 2009 was evaluated. Age, grading, radicality of surgery and FIGO staging were analyzed as additional factors.

RESULTS

SAGNOR IN ADENOMAS, BORDERLINE TUMORS AND CANCERS WAS IN THE FOLLOWING RANGES: (0.73 ±0.23) × 10(6), (0.81 ±0.18) × 10(6) and (0.96 ±0.33) × 10(6) [AgNOR/cm(2)] respectively. In cancers from G1 to G3 sAgNOR was (1.02 ±0.32) × 10(6) (G1), (0.98 ±0.37) × 10(6) (G2) and (0.82 ±0.24) × 10(6) (G3) [AgNOR/cm(2)] respectively. In univariate analysis, but not in multivariate analysis, staging negatively correlated with better DFS and OS. sAgNOR, age of patients, grading and radicality of surgery were not associated with DFS or OS in either univariate or multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

sAgNOR analysis is not sufficient to precisely characterize cellular kinetics in serous ovarian tumors, and the analysis of sAgNOR, mAgNOR and pAgNOR should be performed commonly. The prognostic significance of sAgNOR in patients with serous ovarian cancer was not proven.

Fine needle aspiration cytology of ovarian tumors with histological correlation

BACKGROUND

Till today, there has been some hesitation to accept the role of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in pelvic mass. We have tried to study the role of ultrasonography (USG) and computed tomography (CT) guided FNAC as diagnostic and supportive investigation for ovarian tumors.

AIM

To evaluate the current status of image-directed percutaneous aspiration of ovarian neoplasm for the purpose of early detection of malignancy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Seventy-four fine needle aspirations of ovarian neoplasms were performed between January 2007 and December 2008 by transabdominal approach under USG and CT guidance and correlated with histopathological findings and tumor markers.

RESULTS

A total of 47 (63.5%) cases were assessed as malignant and 21 (28.3%) as benign and 6 (8.1%) as inconclusive. The neoplastic lesions were categorized as per World Health Organization (WHO) classification.

CONCLUSION

With the availability of modern techniques, USG and CT guided FNAC can be an optimum modality for the diagnosis of primary and metastatic ovarian neoplasms and evaluation of recurrent malignant tumors, which has great impact on patient management consequently.

Image-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology of ovarian tumors: An assessment of diagnostic efficacy

Background:

Image-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of ovarian lumps is being increasingly used for the successful diagnosis of ovarian tumors, although borderline cases may be difficult to diagnose by this method.

Aim:

To demonstrate the efficacy of image-guided FNAC in diagnosing ovarian tumors (benign and malignant) and to evaluate the usefulness of cytology as a mode of easy and rapid diagnosis of ovarian lumps.

Materials and Methods:

The study was conducted on 42 female patients. Clinical evaluation and relevant investigations were carried out. Diagnosis was established by FNAC performed under image guidance (ultrasonography/computed tomography). The cytological diagnosis was confirmed by histopathological examination.

Results:

Cytological diagnosis was rendered on all the 42 ovarian lesions, with a correct diagnosis in 34 cases, resulting in a diagnostic accuracy of 80.9%. Most of the cases with discordant diagnoses were surface epithelial tumors of low malignant potential and required histopathological examination for a final diagnosis.

Conclusions:

Image-guided FNAC is an inexpensive, rapid and fairly accurate procedure for the diagnosis of ovarian lesions. It provides a safe alternative to the more expensive, time consuming and cumbersome surgical route to diagnosis.

Dual use of a single Wilms' tumor 1 immunohistochemistry in evaluation of ovarian tumors: a preliminary study of 20 cases

Our previous studies revealed that a single Wilms' tumor 1 (WT-1) immunohistochemistry can be used to elucidate both the myoepithelial cells and blood vessels of human breast tumors. As the human ovary is rich in blood vessels, and WT-1 has been used as a biomarker for ovarian tumors, our current study attempted to assess if a single WT-1 immunohistochemistry has dual usages in evaluation of ovarian tumor and endothelial cells. Paraffin-embedded tissue sections were prepared from 20 cases of ovarian tumors. A set of four consecutive sections from each case were subjected to immunohistochemistry with a mouse monoclonal antibody against the human WT-1 protein, a well defined ovarian tumor marker, CA-125, and a endothelial cell phenotypic marker, CD34, respectively. From each case, 4-5 randomly selected fields were photographed, and expression of these molecules in the same structures were compared. Distinct WT-1 immunoreactivities were seen in both ovarian tumor and endothelial cells. Over 90% of WT-1 positive tumor and endothelial cells were positive for CA-125 and CD34, respectively. Similarly, over 90% of CA-125 or CD34 positive cells co-express WT-1 in tumor or endothelial cells, respectively. Our findings suggest that a single WT-1 immunohistochemistry can be used to assess both the tumor cells and micro-vascular density in ovarian tumors. Our findings also suggest that as WT-1 is expressed in both tumor and endothelial cells, the development of therapeutic agents to target WT-1 may provide an effective treatment option for ovarian cancer.