Clinical and molecular comparison between borderline serous ovarian tumorsand advanced serous papillary ovarian carcinomas

The aim of this study was to characterize the clinical and molecular marker s of borderline serous ovarian tumors (BSOT), and to study their expression in the progression from benign lesions to advanced serous papillary ovaria n carcinomas (SPOC). The clinical records of 20 patients with BSOT and 22 patients with SPOC wer e reviewed. Specimens from all these cases and from six benign ovarian sero us cystadenomas were evaluated for expression of estrogen receptors (ER), p rogesterone receptors (PR), p53, HER-2/neu and Ki-67 by immunohistochemical techniques. The mean patient age and the age at menarche differed significantly between the compared groups of BSOT and SPOC (p=0.0006 and p=0.0014, respectively) . No difference was observed comparing the other clinical parameters. The immunohistochemical. analysis demonstrated a significant increase in th e expression of ER (100% vs 72.7%), and a significant decrease in the immun oreactivity for p53 (0% vs 45.4%) and Ki-67 (2% vs 26.8%) in cases of BSOT compared with those of SPOC (p=0.007, p=0.0003 and p=0.012, respectively). No significant difference was demonstrated comparing the expression of PR a nd HER-2/neu. The immunostaining of benign ovarian serous cystadenoma specimens did not d iffer significantly from immunoreactivity observed in cases of BSOT. Accord ing to immunohistochemical analysis, BSOT had much more in common with beni gn serous tumors than with SPOC. The main difference between BSOT and SPOC was regarding the overexpression of p53 and Ki-67.