A clinico-pathological study of ovarian solid teratomas

Sixteen cases with ovarian immature teratoma received our managements have been reviewed. After exhaustive tissue examination, those neoplasms were graded histologically according to the criteria proposed by Thurlbeck and Scully, in addition, to exclude the mixed germ cell tumors, alfa fetoprotein stainings by PAP method were performed. Ten of all patients are alive without any signs of recurrence and none of grade 3 patients could survive. In our small series, the histologic grade seemed to correlate with the prognosis. Now-a-days the prognostic significance of the grading systems, however, still remains controversial, and it is discussed in this paper. Of particular interest is that the immature teratoma containing glioblastoma element took most fulminant clinical course. It was suggested that special attention should be paid to the histologic components of glioblastoma in the neoplasm. Serum alfa feto-protein level, elevated in two cases, was not associated with the clinical situation and AFP value appears to have questionable diagnostic importance as the tumor marker. Although we had no standard chemotherapeutic programs for immature teratomas, it is believed that the more aggressive surgery followed by good combination chemotherapy brings better prognosis.