Ovarian carcinomas with neuroendocrine differentiation: Review of five cases referring to immunohistochemical characterization.
OBJECTIVE
To review five ovarian carcinomas with varying degrees of neuroendocrine differentiation (ND) using an immunohistochemical study focused on the relationship with morphological features.


METHODS
ND was immunohistochemically analyzed using 21 antibodies by an indirect immunoperoxidase method, and ploidy pattern was analyzed using paraffin sections.


RESULTS
The tumors were divided according to tumor cell size into 'small-sized' for case 1, 'intermediate-sized' for cases 2 and 3, and 'large-sized' for cases 4 and 5. Expressions of neuroendocrine markers and argyrophil reaction tended to be strengthened as tumor cell size increased. Cases 1, 2 and 3 showed diploid pattern and cases 4 and 5 showed aneuploid pattern.


CONCLUSIONS
ND of ovarian carcinomas is closely related to morphological features represented by the cell size. Therefore, ovarian carcinomas with ND should be defined because the disease entity is not successfully integrated irrespective of the highly malignant potential.
Yasuda
Masanori
M
Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Tokai University, Kanagawa, Japan. m-yasuda@is.icc.u-tokai.ac.jp
Kajiwara
Hiroshi
H
Osamura
Yoshiyuki R
YR
Hirasawa
Takeshi
T
Muramatsu
Toshinari
T
Murakami
Masaru
M
Takagi
Masayuki
M
Tadokoro
Mamoru
M
Kobayashi
Youichi
Y
Inayama
Yoshiaki
Y
Miyagi
Etsuko
E
Nakatani
Yukio
Y
D000328:Adult; D018278:Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D011003:Ploidies
D004273:DNA, Neoplasm