MORPHOLOGIC AND MORPHOMETRIC FEATURES OF LOW-GRADE SEROUS TUMORS OF THE OVARY

Peritoneal washings from twelve patients with serous tumours of the ov ary were studied. Six patients had borderline serous tumours (BSTs), a nd six had grade one adenocarcinomas. Papanicolaou stained slides were assessed for nine morphologic parameters; background, single cells, s ize of papillary fragments, contour of papillary fragments, psamomma b odies, cytoplasmic vacuoles, nuclear pleomorphism, nuclear membrane co ntour, and nucleoli. The slides were destained and restained by the Fe ulgen method for assessment, with a computer based image analysis syst em (CAS100, Cell Analysis Systems, Inc., Elmhurst, IL), of DNA content , nuclear size, and nuclear roundness. The contour of the papillary fr agments (P = 0.004) and the presence of nuclear pleomorphism (0.019) w ere distinguishing characteristics. All six BSTs were diploid while th ree of the six adenocarcinomas had aneuploidy. Two exhibited polyploid DNA distribution and one exhibited diploid DNA distribution. The pool ed data for the nuclear size and roundness showed little difference in the modal values, although the nuclei of the adenocarcinoma cells wer e slightly larger than those of the borderline cells (54 sq. mu m vs. 46 sw. mu m). However, the coefficients of variation (CVs) for each of these parameters were larger in the adenocarcinoma group than in the borderline group (59.7 vs. 36.4% for size and 33.5 vs. 17.8% for round ness). Although the sample size is small, the data suggest that aneupl oidy is rare in borderline tumours. In addition, the presence of papil lary groups with irregular contours and nuclear pleomorphism (reflecte d in higher CVs for nuclear size and roundness) both occur more common ly in adenocarcinomas than in border line tumours and may be of predic tive value in distinguishing the two groups. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.