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Case History

48-year-old female with 8.0 cm ovarian mass. Gross sections show multiple cysts with papillary projections.

What is the diagnosis:

  1.              Serous adenocarcinoma
  2.              Serous borderline tumor
  3.              Well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma
  4.                 Retiform Sertoli-Leydig tumor


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Answer is “B”: Serous borderline tumor/Atypical proliferative serous tumor

Age: 4th or 5th decade

Presentation: Often asymptomatic, with indolent course. It may present with abdominal enlargement, rupture. Elevated serum CA125

Histology: Epithelial tumor consisting of hierarchically branching papillae with cellular stratification lined by tubal-type epithelium with low grade cytologic atypia

IHC: CK7, EMA, WT1 positive

Frozen section: If bilateral ovaries are involved by borderline tumor, the surgeon needs to explore and look for extraoavarian disease (up to 56%)

Prognosis: Prognosis depends on the presence of non-invasive implants (recurrence rate 14%) or invasive implants/low grade serous carcinoma (recurrence rate 65%).

Reference: Ovarian borderline tumors in the 2014 WHO classification: evolving concepts and diagnostic criteria, Virchows Arch., 2017: 470(2): 125-142

Case contributed by: Lea Novak, M.D., Associate Professor, Anatomic Pathology