Argyrophilia in ovarian serous tumors. A comparative study in 127 epithelial ovarian tumors.

The distribution of argyrophil cells in epithelial ovarian tumors was studied in 127 cases. The results showed that not only mucinous tumors and endometrioid tumors contained argyrophil cells, but also some serous tumors expressed argyrophilia. 31% of serous tumors including 40% of serous adenocarcinomas contained variable numbers of argyrophil cells. Argyrophilia has been demonstrated in mucinous tumors, endometrioid tumors and Brenner tumors before. However, this is the first time the presence of argyrophilia in serous tumors has been noticed. Moreover, the argyrophil cells in 5 serous carcinomas showed reactivity with Neuroendocrine (chromogranin A) antibody but not with serotonin. The expression pattern of argyrophilia in the serous tumors was different from that of the mucinous tumors; in the former, argyrophil granules appeared in apical portions or throughout the cytoplasm of single or clustered cells. In addition, the argyrophilia in some serous tumors and endometrioid tumors decreased after diastase digestion. Ultrastructurally, no typical neurosecretory granule was found in the argyrophilic serous tumors. The findings in this study suggest that argyrophilia could be quite frequently found in ovarian epithelial tumors and in itself is not a very specific differential characteristic of carcinoid tumors. The argyrophilia found in a variety of epithelial ovarian tumors might lend additional support to the histogenesis and close relationship between the common epithelial tumors of the ovary.