Abstract
Background : Adult granulosa cell tumors account for about 1.5% of all ovarian tumors, and 10% of granulosa cell tumors are accompanied by ascites. We herein present on 3 cases of granulosa cell tumors in ascitic fluid.
Case 1 : A 46-year-old woman with massive hemorrhagic ascites was clinically diagnosed as having surface epithelial malignancies of the bilateral ovaries. Intraoperative cytological findings of the ascitic fluid showed many atypical cells arranged in a loose monolayer pattern. These atypical cells were considered to be tumor cells. However, it was difficult to determine the histological type of the tumor.
Case 2 : A 70-year-old woman was clinically suspected of having an epithelial malignancy of the right ovary. As atypical cells arranged in 3-dimmensional clusters were noted in the ascitic fluid, the cytological diagnosis was adenocarcinoma.
Case 3 : A 36-year-old woman with menstrual irregularity was clinically diagnosed as having an endometriotic cyst of the right ovary. Although a few clusters of atypical cells were recognized in the ascitic fluid, it was hard to distinguish between tumor cells and mesothelial cells.
Conclusion : The cytological features of adult granulosa cell tumors in ascitic fluid were characterized as uniform round nuclei, fine or granular chromatin, a high N/C ratio, and many kinds of structures.
