Summary
One of the problems in histopathology of ovarian tumors is differential diagnosis between the poorly differentiated carcinomas and granulosa cell tumors of the sarcomatoid type. Hence we evaluated the expression of various cytokeratins (CK 1–19; CK 10, 13, 14, 15, 19; CK 8, 18, 19; CK HMW 1, 5, 10, 11; CK 8; CK 1–19 Stähli; CK AE1/AE3) immunohistochemically in 53 ovarian malignancies (11 of them poorly differentiated carcinomas and 12 granulosa cell tumors). CK HMW was not detected in granulosa cell utmors, and in only half of the carcinomas. AE1/AE3 was expressed by more than 90% of ovarian carcinomas but by one granulosa cell tumor only. The other keratins we investigated showed higher expression rates in granulosa cell tumors and/or lower expression rates in ovarian carcinomas. We think that cytokeratin immunohistochemistry is of value in differentiating between granulosa cell tumors and ovarian carcinomas.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chadha S, van der Kwast THH (1989) Immunohistochemistry of ovarian granulosa cell tumors. The value of tissue specific proteins on tumour markers. Virchows Arch 414:439–445
Czernobilsky B, Moll R, Leppien G, Schweickhart G, Franke WW (1987) Desmosomal plaque associated vimentin filaments in human ovarian granulosa cell tumors of various histologic patterns. Am J Pathol 126:476–486
Dabbs DJ, Geisinger KR (1988) Common epithelial ovarian tumors. Immunohistochemical intermediate filament profiles. Cancer 62:368–374
Gitsch G, Kohlberger P, Hanzal E, Kölbl H, Breitenecker G (1991) Immunohistochemical differentiation between ovarian granulosa cell tumors and ovarian carcinomas. Arch Gyn Obst 249:173–177
Kurmann RJ, Ganjei P, Nadji M (1984) Contributions of immunohistochemistry to the diagnosis and study of ovarian neoplasms. Int J Gynecol Pathol 3:3–26
Miettinen M, Lehto VP, Virtanen I (1983) Expression of intermediate filaments in normal ovaries and ovarian epithelial, sex cord stromal and germinal tumors. Int J Gynecol Pathol 2:64–71
Miettinen M, Walstrom T, Vitranen I, Talerman A, Astengo-Osuna C (1985) Cellular differentiation in ovarian sex cord-stromal and germ-cell tumors studied with antibodies to intermediate-filament proteins. Am J Surg Pathol 9:640–651
Scully RE (1984) Immunohistochemistry of ovarian tumors. In: Jose Russo (ed) Immunocytochemistry in tumor diagnosis. Nijhoff, Boston Dordrecht Lancaster, p 293–321
von Overbeck J, Stähli C, Gudat F, Carmann H, Lautenschlager C, Dürmüller U, Takacs B, Miggiano V, Staehelin T, Heitz PU (1985) Immunohistochemical characterisation of an anti-epithelial monoclonal antibody (mAB Lu5). Virchows Arch A 407:1–12
Young RH, Scully RE (1982) Ovarian sexcord-stromal tumors: recent progress. Int J Gynecol Pathol 1:101–123
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gitsch, G., Kohlberger, P., Steiner, A. et al. Expression of cytokeratins in granulosa cell tumors and ovarian carcinomas. Arch Gynecol Obstet 251, 193–197 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02718386
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02718386