Consistent numerical chromosome aberrations in thecofibromas of the ovary

Sex cord-stromal tumors of the ovary comprise 8% of all ovarian neoplasms. Because they consist of cells that resemble embryonic sex cord and/or specialized ovarian stroma cells, their cytologic and histologic features can be viewed as reflecting a continuum from fibromas to thecomas with thecofibromas in between. Existing cytogenetic knowledge about ovarian thecomas–thecofibromas–fibromas is restricted to 44 cases with chromosomal abnormalities. The most common aberration has been trisomy 12, identified either by karyotyping or using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). We wanted to obtain more information about the genomic composition of these tumors, and, therefore, examined 29 new thecoma–thecofibroma–fibroma tumors of the ovary using karyotyping, comparative genomic hybridization, interphase FISH, and DNA ploidy analysis. We detected aneuploidy in 21 tumors. Trisomy and/or tetrasomy 12 was the most common chromosomal aberration, found in 15 tumors (71.5% of the aneuploid tumors or 51.5% of all analyzed tumors), followed by trisomy for chromosomes 10, 18, 4, and 9. Some monosomies (for chromosomes 4, 9, 10, and 18) were also identified, either as the sole change or in combination with trisomies. The nonrandom occurrence of these aneuploidies in these benign tumors strongly indicates that they play a major pathogenetic role, but how trisomies and other aneuploidies contribute to tumorigenesis remains unknown.