The value of morphometry to predict chemotherapy response in advanced ovarian cancer

We evaluated the correlation of morphometric parameters to chemosensitivity. 63 patients with palliatively operated advanced epithelial ovarian cancer were investigated concerning their response to chemotherapy. Using multiple linear stepwise discriminant analysis of five morphometrical parameters 13 out of 17 responders and 37 out of 46 non-responders were correctly classified (76.5% sensitivity, 80.4% specificity, 79.4% efficiency). The five parameters were: nuclear area at the 10th percentile, standard deviation of the nuclear area, median value of the nuclear ovality, number of cells per area and mitotic activity index. To assess the performance of the discrimination formula when applied to new cases, the "leave one out" method was used. For our data the following corrected classification rates were obtained: 58.8% responders (10/17), 76.1% non-responders (35/46) (efficiency 71.4%). Morphometry is a fast and reproducible method to objectively record a tumor's morphology. Our results indicate that there is a correlation between morphometrical features, response to chemotherapy and survival, which should be tested in further studies.