THE PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF NUCLEAR ROUNDNESS AND NEOPTERIN IN OVARIAN-CANCER

The prognostic value of clinical factors, morphometric features and ne opterin, a marker for macrophage activation, was investigated retrospe ctively in 68 ovarian carcinoma patients. Nuclear roundness was a good predictor of patient survival. About 50% of our patients showed neopt erin concentrations above the cut-off level of 275 mumol/mol creatinin e. Interestingly, those patients with elevated urinary neopterin conce ntration, and thus displaying a sign of activation of cell-mediated im munity, had a shorter survival than those with a normal concentration. Applying a multivariate Cox regression analysis, the only independent parameters predicting patient survival were FIGO stage, residual dise ase, nuclear roundness and neopterin.