Pathological aspects of normal-sized ovarian carcinoma

Twenty cases of ovarian carcinoma with normal-sized ovaries were examined histologically. Fifteen of them had metastatic disease of the peritoneal cavity and three of the remaining showed uterine involvement. Only in one case was the tumor confined to the ovary, but this patient had experienced systemic chemotherapy before surgery. The remaining case had metastasis of the stomach. Thus, "normal-sized" ovarian carcinoma has a great tendency to spread externally. Histology of the carcinoma was that of common epithelial carcinoma of the ovary with variable degrees of differentiation except for three cases of apparent ovarian metastasis. No cases of definite mesothelioma with ovarian involvement were encountered. A search for determinants of the peritoneal spread was performed using immunohistochemistry for p53 and bcl-2 proteins. However, no differences were found in the antigen expression between the group with and without peritoneal metastasis.