MUCINOUS CARCINOMA OF THE OVARY - CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Since the incidence of mucinous carcinoma of the ovary is relatively l ow, with only small numbers of cases at any institution, detailed clin icopathologic studies on the prognosis and the care of patients with m ucinous carcinoma are missing. Forty-four patients with mucinous carci noma were histopathologically subclassified into endocervical (n = 8) and intestinal types (n = 36), and studied for clinical manifestations . All tumors of the endocervical type were stage I, whereas 14 intesti nal-type tumors were stage II or higher (p < 0.05). Stromal invasion w as not observed in 14 of 44 tumors, 13 of which were stage I. Analysis of prognostic factors disclosed that the clinical stage, maximum resi dual tumor diameter, volume of ascites, stromal invasion, and preopera tive CA125 and CA19-9 levels significantly affected prognosis. However , multivariate analysis (stepwise regression) showed that the only sig nificant factor was clinical stage (p < 0.004). In conclusion it is be lieved that, pathologically, the endocervical-tpye mucinous carcinoma is not as aggressive as the intestinal-type cancer. The clinical stage was found to be a significant prognostic factor even by multivariate analysis, and the prognosis at stages III and IV was unfavorable compa red to stages I and II.