Abstract
Background : Transitional cell tumors of the ovary are uncommon histologic subtypes, and include the following : Brenner tumor (BT), borderline Brenner tumor, malignant Brenner tumor (mBT), and transitional cell carcinoma (TCC). A few studies about their cytological findings have been reported. The present study aimed at demonstrating the differences among the cytological findings of these subtypes to evaluate the usefulness of intraoperative imprint cytology of ovarian tumors.
Cases : Two cases of BT, two cases of mBT and one case of TCC received intraoperative imprint cytology at our hospital. Their cytological findings were evaluated.
Cytological findings of BT showed a clean background, many stromal cells and mature urothelial-like tumor cells. mBT and TCC showed a background with necrosis and poor stromal cells. BT showed a defined cytoplasmic border, fine granular chromatin, and many tumor cells with grooved, “coffee bean” nuclei. TCC showed an ill-defined cytoplasmic border, coarse granular chromatin, and scant “coffee bean” nuclei. mBT showed variable cytological findings with mixtures of clusters resembling BT and TCC.
Conclusion : There were differences in the ratio of the count of stromal cells to tumor cells, nuclear atypia, and the count of “coffee bean” nuclei among the three tumors. Knowledge of these distinct cytological features is useful as an adjunct to the intraoperative diagnoses of ovarian tumors.
