Objective: To study the clinicopathological features of extraovarian peritoneal serous papillary carcinoma (EPSPC).
Methods: The clinical pictures and pathological characteristics of 10 cases of EPSPC admitted to our hospital from 1980 through 1994 were studied retrospectively. Meanwhile, control studies were performed for 5 cases of ovarian serous papillary carcinoma and 4 cases of malignant peritoneal methothelioma.
Results: The ages of the 10 patients were between 44 and 77. The bilateral overies and fallopian tubes were all normal. The histomorphology as examined by photomicroscope and ultrastructural electromicroscope, the histochemistry determined by periodic acid-schiff (PAS) and Alcian blue stain and the immuno-histochemistry detected by carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), AE1 and AE3 monoclonal antibody assays all revealed no difference between EPSPC and ovarian serous papillary carcinoma. The same is true for those between EPSPC and malignant methothelioma of peritonium except that the Alcian blue stain result would turned to be negative from positive after digesting with hyaluronidase and the micro-villi are longer for malignant peritoneal methothelioma as compared with EPSPC.
Conclusions: The pathohistogenicity of EPSPC is not from ovaries but the methothelium of peritoneum, so called the secondary Müllarian system.