Abstract
The prognosis of ovarian clear cell adenocarcinoma remains poor, even in the early stages. Thus, great efforts are being made to improve the treatment modalities of this disease, with chemotherapy in particular being in a period of dynamic development. To date, no universal criteria of histological grade or effective prognostic factors have been established for ovarian clear cell adenocarcinoma. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prognostic significance of histological architectural subtype, immunohistochemical staining with CA125 and proliferation factors in ovarian clear cell adenocarcinoma tissues. Tumors obtained from 24 patients with ovarian clear cell adenocarcinoma (Stage I-IV) were examined for architectural subtype and immunohistochemical expression of CA125, PCNA, Ki-67, and topoisomerase II. Architectural subtype was classified into three types (papillary, solid, and tubulocystic/glandular) . The expression of CA125, PCNA, Ki-67, and topoisomerase II were compared with clinical features of the study population and overall survival. Survival curves were constructed according to the Kaplan-Meier method. The PCNA, Ki-67 and topoisomerase II labeling indices in the tumors were 44.3±14.7%, 14.0±5.0% and 13.9±7.7% (mean±S.D.), respectively. Strong expression of CA125 was observed in 41.7% of the tumors. This expression was not associated with FIGO stage or architectural subtype. Patients with papillary type carcinoma had a lower probability of survival than those with the solid type. Patients with strong expression of CA125 demonstrated a higher probability of survival than those with weak expression. These results suggest that low immunohistochemical expression of CA125 and papillary subtype in ovarian clear cell adenocarcinoma are associated with a poor prognosis.
