MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE COMBINED BREAST AND OVARIAN CANCER

Breast cancer, as a hormone-dependent malignancy, has a high risk to trigger synchronous or metachronous ovarian tumor. Studying the biological characteristics of tumors to determine the most adequate prognosis and to select the best treatment is extremely relevant. The purpose of the paper was to investigate the histological and immunohistochemical features of combined breast and ovarian cancer in women. A retrospective analysis of the past medical histories of women with combined breast and ovarian cancer, regardless the sequence of their occurrence that involved the study of histological and immunohistochemical characteristics of the tumors, has been carried out. The average age of women at the time the tumors were detected on both localizations was 59.5 ± 10.3 years. The primary tumor appeared in either the breast or the ovaries at about the same incidence. In one case, tumors of both localizations were diagnosed at the same time when the patient sought for medical assistance. The average time period between the development of breast and ovarian cancer was 3.3 ± 2.8 years. Histologically, 93.3% of breast cancers are invasive ductal carcinoma, moderately differentiated (7 cases), poorly differentiated (6 cases), and well differentiated (2 cases). Ovarian cancer is histologically represented by poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (10 cases), moderately differentiated variant (3 cases) and well differentiated variant (2 cases). Immunohistochemically, the tumors on both localizations were characterized by the similar expression of the investigated markers. The findings of the study confirm that the women have a certain morphological and immunohistochemical pattern of the tumor process in the breast and ovary. It can be assumed that the tumors of the above localizations are interrelated processes, which are likely to be hereditary.