Clinicopathological spectrum of ovarian tumors: A 5-year experience in a tertiary health care center

Background: Ovarian tumors are a heterogeneous group of neoplasm of epithelial, stromal, and germ cell origin. Even in a single class of tumor, there exists inherent heterogeneity with biological behavior ranging from benign to the highly aggressive malignant tumor. The management of the patient also depends on the histological type of the tumor. These facts fascinated and prompted us to undertake the present study. Aim: To analyze the modes of presentation and various histopathological patterns of ovarian tumor. Materials and Methods: It was a retrospective observational study. The study was conducted in Department of Pathology, B. J. Medical College Pune, India from July 2006 to June 2011. All the histopathology slides of ovarian tumors during the study period were retrieved and reviewed along with the patient′s demographics, clinical features, and gross findings. Data thus collected were analyzed. Results: A total of 226 cases of ovarian tumors out of 1098 cases of female genital cancers were studied. Age ranged from 12 to 80 years. The surface epithelial tumors were the most common ovarian tumor constituting 163 cases (72.1%), followed by germ cell tumors 45 cases (19.9%). The most common complaint in the present study was pain in the abdomen (115 cases, 50.9%) irrespective of the nature of the ovarian tumor. Bilaterality was common in malignant tumors (66.7%, 16/24). Right and left side was almost equally affected among unilateral tumors. The size of the tumor varied from 3 to 32 cm. Conclusions: By knowing clinical data, sonography findings, and gross features, we can narrow our differential diagnosis and reach to the final microscopic diagnosis in most of the cases in very cost-effective manner.