INTRODUCTION

Morphological examination is mandatory in patients with ovarian tumors, to establishe the diagnosis and choosing the treatment tactics. Ovarian puncture to obtain aspirate is allowed only if malignization is completely excluded. Therefore, the main method of primary diagnosis of ovarian tumors is cytological examination of pleural and abdominal cavities effusions. However, the study of exudates remains a difficult diagnostic task.

OBJECTIVE

Yo improve cytologic diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

39 patients with effusions in the pleural or abdominal cavity participated in the study. Of these, 22 patients had histologically confirmed serous adenocarcinoma of the ovary, 17 patients (control group) had reactive effusions. In the course of the study we performed conventional cytologic examination and immunohistochemical study of markers p63, p53, TTF-1, CEA on cell blocks of effusion fluids.

RESULTS

According to the results of cytologic study in all patients with serous adenocarcinoma of the ovary, the presence of malignant ovarian neoplasm was confirmed. Immunohistochemical study in the group of patients with serous adenocarcinoma of the ovary in 18 patients showed positive expression of p53 marker and in one patient — positive expression of p63 marker. Expression of TTF-1 and CEA markers was absent in this group of patients. In the control group of patients with reactive effusion there was no expression of all four markers studied. Thus, there is a correlation between the presence of serous adenocarcinoma of the ovary and the expression of marker p53 in the cell block material of the effusion fluid (p<0.0001).

CONCLUSION

The use of cytologic and immunohistochemical study of p53 marker in cell blocks of effusion fluids showed high informativeness in the study and gave grounds for consideration and further study of p53 marker as a potential additional and minimally invasive method of ovarian cancer detection.