Study of Histomorphological Spectrum of Mucinous Tumours of Ovary in a Tertiary Care Center in Thrissur, Kerala, India

BACKGROUND Mucinous ovarian tumours have various histomorphological patterns. Histopathological examination plays an important role in classifying ovarian tumours for prognosis and better treatment. Mucinous ovarian tumours are classified into benign cystadenomas, borderline mucinous tumours and malignant mucinous cystadenocarcinomas. This study was done to evaluate the distribution of ovarian tumours with respect to various parameters like age, laterality, size, loculation, stratification of cells, nuclear atypia, to study the gross morphological patterns of the various histopathological tumour types and evaluate the association between various parameters of ovarian tumours and risk of malignancy. METHODS A cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, in a tertiary health care centre over a period of 5 years. The study includes cases of mucinous cystadenomas, borderline mucinous tumours and cystadenocarcinomas. Formalin fixed and paraffin embedded sections were reviewed. Data was collected & entered in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 sheet. RESULTS Among 32 cases of mucinous tumours studied 15 are mucinous cystadenomas, 10 are borderline tumours and 7 are cystadenocarcinomas. The mean age is 45 years. 1 case of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma showed bilateralism. 68.8 % of the tumours were more than 15 cms in size. 72 % of the tumours were multiloculated and 28 % were uniloculated. 78.1 % of the tumours have stratification of less than 4 cell-thickness. 46.9 % of tumours had no nuclear atypia, 31.2 % had mild atypia and 21.9 had severe nuclear atypia. CONCLUSIONS Benign cystadenomas were more common than malignant and borderline tumours. The mean age of presentation was 45 years. KEYWORDS Benign Cystadenomas, Mucinous Borderline Tumours, Mucinous Cystadenocarcinomas