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Published on: May 10, 2021
Accuracy of intraoperative frozen section diagnosis of ovarian tumors
P B Pinto1, L A Andrade, S F Derchain
1Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, UNICAMP Campinas, SP, Brazil.
Objective:
The goal of this work was to evaluate retrospectively, as quality control, the accuracy of frozen section diagnosis in ovarian tumors.
Method:
We compared 243 frozen section results with the final diagnosis in paraffin sections, from cases studied from January 1994 to April 1999.
Results:
Results with the two methods were analyzed on two parameters: (a) malignant potential and (b) histological type. As for malignant potential, frozen section diagnosis agreed with the paraffin diagnosis in 94% of all cases (98.5% for malignant tumors, 94% for benign tumors, and 78.6% for borderline tumors). There was one false-positive and 13 false-negative cases. Sensitivity and specificity values for malignant tumors were 93 and 99%; for borderline tumors, 61 and 99%; and for benign tumors, 98 and 93%. With respect to histological type, in 203 cases (84%) the pathologists had no doubt in the diagnosis; in 40 cases (16%) diagnosis was given as "compatible with." In 35 of these (87.5%) the initial diagnosis was confirmed by paraffin.
Conclusion:
Frozen section diagnosis seems to be a reliable method for ovarian tumors, with high sensitivity for malignant neoplasms and a low false-positive rate which allow the best choice of treatment. The most frequent problems arise with borderline and granulosa cell tumors.
