Possibilities and progress of quantitative pathological examination of ovarian tumours

Morphometric and flow DNA-cytometric analysis of ovarian tumours of the common epithelial type has an important and strong additional prognostic impact, which is stage-independent, and more important than subjective grade. In stage I cancers, combined morphometric analysis and DNA index assessed with flow-cytometry can indicate a subgroup of patients with an especially poor prognosis. In stage III and IV cancers, morphometric features exceed the prognostic value of cellular DNA content, as far as they allow selection of a small subset of patients with an excellent prognosis. These results indicate that quantitative pathological examination is of essential importance for therapeutic decision-making both in early and late ovarian cancer patients, and therefore should be carried out as a routine procedure in women with this disease.