D. Minaretzis et al., OVARIAN-TUMORS - PREDICTION OF THE PROBABILITY OF MALIGNANCY BY USINGPATIENTS AGE AND TUMOR MORPHOLOGIC FEATURES WITH A LOGISTIC MODEL, Gynecologic and obstetric investigation, 38(2), 1994, pp. 140-144
An attempt was made to predict the probability of malignancy of a give
n ovarian tumor in a certain patient by using the age and simple morph
ologic features of the tumor. A cohort of 959 patients with ovarian tu
mors was analysed retrospectively according to the patient's age and t
umor characteristics such as greatest diameter, consistency, bilateral
ity and diagnosis as malignant (271 patients) or benign (688 patients)
. All variables were entered unconditionally in a logistic regression.
The presence of solid/multilocular elements has a 9.6-fold increased
risk of malignancy, where a bilateral tumor has a 2.8-fold increase. S
ignificant increase in risk of malignancy was observed in ages under 2
0 and over 40 years, as well as in tumors with a diameter larger than
9 cm. All variables were highly significant associated with the discri
mination between benign and malignant. A formula including all variabl
es has been developed so that the probability of malignancy can be est
imated by a scientific calculator. In conclusion, simple, easily deter
mined by ultrasound and reproducible criteria such as patient's age, t
umor size, consistency and bilaterality were assembled in a logistic m
odel in order to predict the probability of malignancy for a given ova
rian tumor, in an individual patient.