Mucinous carcinoma of the ovary. Clinicopathologic analysis.

Since the incidence of mucinous carcinoma of the ovary is relatively low, with only small numbers of cases at any institution, detailed clinicopathologic studies on the prognosis and the care of patients with mucinous carcinoma are missing. Forty-four patients with mucinous carcinoma were histopathologically subclassified into endocervical (n = 8) and intestinal types (n = 36), and studied for clinical manifestations. All tumors of the endocervical type were stage I, whereas 14 intestinal-type tumors were stage II or higher (p < 0.05). Stromal invasion was not observed in 14 of 44 tumors, 13 of which were stage I. Analysis of prognostic factors disclosed that the clinical stage, maximum residual tumor diameter, volume of ascites, stromal invasion, and preoperative CA125 and CA19-9 levels significantly affected prognosis. However, multivariate analysis (stepwise regression) showed that the only significant factor was clinical stage (p < 0.004). In conclusion it is believed that, pathologically, the endocervical-type mucinous carcinoma is not as aggressive as the intestinal-type cancer. The clinical stage was found to be a significant prognostic factor even by multivariate analysis, and the prognosis at stages III and IV was unfavorable compared to stages I and II.