Frozen section in borderline ovarian tumors: is it reliable?

We reported the concordance of frozen/section (FS) diagnosis of borderline ovarian tumor (BOT) and identified the factors associated with the concordance.

FS results of the patients with a final diagnosis of BOT operated between 1990 and 2012 were analyzed. The FS results were reported as benign, rule out borderline tumor, borderline tumor, at least borderline tumor and malign tumor intraoperatively. The concordance of FS diagnosis was determined by comparing the FS result with the final pathological diagnosis. We accepted the FS concordant with the final pathology when the FS result was borderline tumor or at least borderline tumor, since we managed these patients in a similar way intraoperatively. Data regarding histological subtype, tumor size, age of the patients, menopausal status, presence of bilateral disease, preoperative Ca-125 level and the final diagnosis were evaluated.

FS results of 145 patients were analyzed. The concordance of FS analysis for the total group, for the ones with serous and mucinous BOT were 79%, 92% and 62%, respectively. Totally, 29 patients (20%) weren't staged intraoperatively due to inaccurate FS result. Mucinous histology and larger tumor size were associated with lower concordance of FS. Concordance wasn't associated with type of surgery (conservative vs radical), menopausal status, laterality of the tumor, age of the patients and Ca-125 level of the patients.

The high discrepancy rate of FS, especially in mucinous and larger tumors should be kept in mind during intraoperative decision-making based on FS analysis for BOT.