The Usefulness of Cytokeratin 7 and Colon Ovarian Tumor Antigen in the Differential Diagnosis of Primary and Metastatic Ovarian Tumors

Lee, Eung Seok; Cho, Hyun Deuk; Kim, In Sun

Abstract

Cytokeratin 7 has been known to be present in various types of human epithelial cells including the ovarian neoplasms, but not in colon cancers. The antibody to colon ovarian tumor antigen (COTA) has been introduced as a marker of colon and ovarian tumors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of cytokeratin 7 and COTA in the differential diagnosis between ovarian primary and metastatic tumors. Nineteen primary ovarian epithelial tumors, seven metastatic carcinomas of the ovary from the stomach, three metastatic carcinomas of the ovary from the colon, one mucinous tumor of the ovary associated with a mucinous tumor of the appendix and pseudomyxoma peritonei, and nineteen colonic and twenty gastric adenocarcinomas were stained with monoclonal antibodies to cytokeratin 7 and COTA. The results are summerized as follows; In the primary ovarian tumors, 94.4% were positive for cytokeratin 7 and 50% were positive for COTA. In the primary colonic adenocarcinomas, 94.7% were negative for cytokeratin 7 and 68% were positive for COTA. In the metastatic ovarian tumor from the colonic adenocarcinomas, 100% were negative for cytokeratin 7 and positive for COTA. In the primary gastric adenocarcinomas, 40% were negative for cytokeratin 7 and 85% were negative for COTA. In the metastatic ovarian tumor from the gastric adenocarcinomas, 43% were negative for cytokeratin 7 and 14% were negative for COTA. From the results of this study, it could be concluded that in the differential diagnosis of primary ovarian tumors from metastatic colonic carcinomas, positive reaction for cytokeratin 7 suggests a primary ovarian tumor but a negative reaction for cytokeratin 7 and positive reaction for COTA suggest metastatic colonic carcinomas. The results of this study also reveal that cytokeratin 7 and COTA are not useful in the differential diagnosis of primary ovarian tumors from metastatic gastric carcinomas.