Epithelial ovarian cancer

Template:Epithelial ovarian cancer Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Hannan Javed, M.D.[2]

The origin of mucinous tumors of gastrointestinal type and transitional cell (Brenner) tumors: Still a mystery to solve

• Mucinous and the transitional tumors of ovaries are two of the least common types of the epithelial ovarian tumors. In fact, most of the mucinous tumors in ovaries are secondary and primary tumors only form about 3% of all epithelial ovarian cancers.
• Mucinous epithelium in mucinous tumors of ovaries resemble more to intestinal mucinous epithelium rather than that of endocervix as was previously argued. Transitional cell tumors, on the other hand, are closer to bladder epithelium in histological studies.
• Another study demonstrated the presence of Brenner tumor foci in mucinous cystadenoma in almost one fifth of the cases. Alternatively the association of mucinous tumors with Walthard cell nests, which are composed of transitional-type epithelium, also indicates the connection between mucinous and transitional tumors.

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  ARIDA loss and PIK3CA activation in clear cell cancer of ovaries.(A)  ARID1A and PIK3CA alterations plot against TCGA datasets. Significance of association between ARID1A and PIK3CA mutations were determined using Fisher’s exact test. (B) Determination of CRE-deleted (Arid1aΔ) allele in samples of tumor DNA. (C) RT-PCR was used to detect ARID1A loss or (Gt)Rosa26Pik3ca^*H1047R transcripts.  (D and E) Expression of ARID1A in normal ovaries (E) Expression of ARID1A in the normal ovarian surface epithelium (arrowhead). (F) ARID1A expression is not observed in the tumors. (H, I) Highest expression of P-AKT S473 in surface epithelium of ovaries in normal ovaries (E, arrowhead) and are greatly increased in ovarian tumors (F, arrowhead). Asterisk in E denotes an oocyte. (J,K) Morbid Arid1a^fl/fl;(Gt)Rosa26Pik3ca^*H1047R mouse at sacrifice with hemorrhagic ascites (inset), primary ovarian tumor of moderate size, and bilateral tumor metastases (arrowheads). (L,M) Morbid Arid1a^fl/fl;(Gt)Rosa26Pik3ca^*H1047R mouse at sacrifice with hemorrhagic ascites (inset), large primary ovarian tumor, and no visible metastases. The mice shown in J-M were sacrificed at 7 and 9 weeks post-AdCRE, respectively, because of visible ascitic fluid burden. (N,O) Arid1a^fl/+;(Gt)Rosa26Pik3ca^*H1047R mice at 11-weeks post-AdCRE showing no evidence for tumor formation. In K and M, dashed circles indicate primary ovarian tumor on injected ovary. In N, arrows denote the AdCRE injected ovary. In K, M, and O, asterisks denote the uninjected, control ovary.