Morphology of borderline mucinous ovarian tumors

The examination of structures of the tumor tissues taken from 47 patients with borderline mucinous tumours of the ovary showed that the tumors belonging to this group, like their serous analogues, were an indistinctly limited nosological entity that characterizes a particular stage in the malignant transformation of the epithelium as evidenced by a wide range of structures that are interchangable from mucinous adenofibroma to mucinous carcinoma. Death may result from pseudomyxoma or dissemination that follows the pattern seen in cancer. The latter generally stems from small-sized areas of occult cancer which are detectable from a retrospective analysis of the material available. Intraoperative laceration of the tumor makes no contribution to the occurrence of peritoneal pseudomyxoma. The results of the histochemical study into the mucosa indicated that the tumor cells were heterogeneous in mucosaccharides. The cells which were completely free from acid fractions in the presence of neutral mucins were identified. Disregarding the features indicated, one can reasonably reject the fact that the neoplasm is of mucinous character as judged from alcian blue-stained specimens.