Search

A 64-year-old woman with a 45,X karyotype and Turner's syndrome and recent onset of right lower quadrant pain was found to have a mucinous cystadenoma with focal areas of borderline malignancy and a typical Brenner tumor in the right adnexa. Ovarian tumors in patients with a 45,X karyotype and Turner's syndrome are extremely rare. The present paper is the first report of concurrence of these 2 tumors in an affected individual. The simultaneous occurrence and intimate admixture of these tumors in a patient believed to be devoid of germ cells would seem to favor a common histogenesis from the germinal epithelium.

Basement membranes of 33 samples of in situ or invasive squamous cell carcinomas of the cervix uteri, vagina, and vulva were studied by defined immunofluorescence technics. Pooled serum from patients with bullous pemphigoid, containing specific antibody to squamous epithelial basement membrane, was utilized. Essentially normal basement membranes were found in all cases of in situ carcinoma and in 18 cases of invasive carcinoma. Basement membranes appeared poorly formed in three specimens with invasion and were absent in the remaining three. These findings support the premise that penetration of the basement membrane is not a valid criterion for distinguishing in situ from invasive squamous cell carcinoma.