INFANTILE HEMANGIOENDOTHELIOMA OF THE OVARY - A MONODERMAL TERATOMA OR A NEOPLASM OF OVARIAN SOMATIC-CELLS

Vascular tumors of the female genital tract are uncommon, and only a f ew cases have been reported in the ovary. We describe herein, an unusu al tumor of the ovary: infantile hemangioendothelioma (cellular hemang ioma of infancy) in a newborn. The tumor consisted of well-formed bloo d vessels and proliferating endothelial cells that were arranged in so lid cordlike structures. The tumor permeated the ovarian stroma and en trapped normal ovarian follicles. By immunohistochemistry the neoplast ic cells expressed factor VIII, CD34, and alpha smooth-muscle actin, a nd ultrastructurally they had the features of endothelial cells that w ere focally associated with pericytes. We examined simple sequence rep eat (SSR) polymorphic markers in the tumor tissue, as well as in the p atient's and parents' blood. The informative SSR markers were found to be identical in the tumor and in the patient's somatic cells. We sugg est that the tumor described herein is a congenital infantile hemangio endothelioma arising from ovarian parenchymal cells rather than a tera toma originating from germ cells. A similar morphologic lesion has bee n described recently in the ovary and interpreted as monodermal terato ma composed of vascular tissue.