Genetic and cytogenetic observations among different types of ovarian tumors are compatible with a progression model underlying ovarian tumorigenesis.

In this report we present the characterization of ovarian neoplasms including benign tumors, borderline tumors, and invasive carcinomas in order to assess whether a sharing of cytogenetic abnormalities is present in all three types of tumors. A cohort of 114 newly diagnosed and untreated ovarian epithelial tumors were analyzed by cytogenetic and molecular cytogenetic approaches with probes specific for chromosome 6. Three groups of chromosome abnormalities were identified: the first group included abnormalities common to all tumor classes (losses of chromosomes 6, 8, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and X; gains of chromosomes 1, 3, 5, and 12; 6q24 approximately qter deletions); the second group presented specific abnormalities present in malignant but not in benign tumors (losses of chromosomes 2, 7, 13, and 14; gains of chromosome 4 and chromosome markers); and the last group included abnormalities unique to invasive carcinomas (loss of chromosome 4; gains of chromosomes 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21; 6q16 approximately q24 deletions; rearrangements of 3p, 3q, 13q, and 21q regions). The presence of shared chromosomal alterations in all three types of ovarian neoplasms investigated in this report seems therefore to suggest a progression model for these types of tumors.