Pathology of Mucinous Ovarian Cystadenomas

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Abstract
Mucinous ovarian cystadenomas (human) of different grades of malignancy (7 benign, 4 borderline and 3 malignant) were investigated by EM. The main tumor cell type was a columnar mucous epithelial cell with short microvilli. With increasing grade of malignancy the shape and size of these cells became more irregular and the number of mucous granules in them decreased. Most of the mucous granules had a dense core and a less dense reticular component which stained well with the periodic acid-silver methenamine (PASM) technique. Goblet cells with the usual ultrastructure were found rather frequently. The tumors in a given group of malignancy were relative similar to each other in their light microscopic and EM appearance. A number of tumors contained argyrophil and argentaffin cells in addition to the columnar and goblet cells. The mucinous ovarian cystadenomas may arise from the ovarian surface epithelium via a metaplastic process.