General and Systemic Histopathology, C601&C602
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Your slide consists of
a very small strip taken from the wall of a very large cystic tumor.
Don't waste a lot of time trying to find normal ovary, I'm not sure there
is any.
The malignant epithelium is found lining the cyst and on the surface of the many papillary growths and extensions. The papillary "head" seen in the picture to the left appears to be "floating" because when the section was cut the stalk connecting it to the wall of the cyst out of the plane of the section. Trust me, it was connected to the wall. Look on the surface of this little "head piece" for the best examples of the malignant epithelium. See this slide with the virtual microscope. |
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A higher power view of the malignant epithelial cells. In this field, the cancer cells are invading the matrix of the ovary, and are not confined to the papillary surface, as was the case in the first (low power) view of this slide. |