The cytokeratin 17 expression in primary ovarian tumors has diagnostic but not prognostic significance

Authors	DUNDR Pavel BAZALOVA Barbora BARTU Michaela BOSSE Tjalling DROZENOVA Jana FABIAN Pavel FADARE Oluwole HAUSNEROVÁ Jitka JAKSA Radek LACO Jan LAX Sigurd F. MATEJ Radoslav MCCLUGGAGE W Glenn MEHES Gabor MICHALKOVA Romana NEMEJCOVA Kristyna SINGH Naveena SINGH Naveena STOLNICU Simona SKAPA Petr SVAJDLER Marian STRUZINSKA Ivana
Year of publication	2022
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	Virchows Archiv
MU Faculty or unit	Faculty of Medicine
Citation
Web	https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00428-022-03338-z
Doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00428-022-03338-z
Keywords	Cytokeratin 17; Ovarian tumors; Gastrointestinal tract tumors; Differential diagnosis
Description	We assessed the value of cytokeratin 17 (CK17) expression for the differential diagnosis between primary ovarian mucinous tumors and metastases from the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and the significance of CK17 expression in a broad spectrum of primary ovarian tumors with respect to their prognosis. The sample set consisted of 554 primary ovarian tumors and 255 GIT tumors. In the primary ovarian tumors, a higher CK17 expression (in > 10% of tumors cells) was present only in 0-11.4% of all tumors (including mucinous tumors, micropapillary serous borderline tumors, clear cell, endometrioid, and high-grade serous carcinomas). The only exception was low-grade serous carcinoma, where higher CK17 expression was present in 24% of cases. Concerning GIT tumors, the higher levels of CK 17 expression (in > 10% of tumor cells) were observed in the upper GIT tumors (68.5% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, 61.6% of gallbladder adenocarcinoma, and 46% of gastric adenocarcinoma), which differs substantially not only from most of the primary ovarian tumors, but also from colorectal carcinoma (3.7%; p < 0.001). The results of our study suggest that expression of CK17 can potentially be used as an adjunct marker in differential diagnosis between primary ovarian mucinous tumors and metastases from the upper GIT, but not from colorectal carcinoma. However, in GIT tumors, CK17 can be used in the differential diagnosis between adenocarcinomas of the upper and lower GIT. Statistical analysis did not reveal strong association of CK17 expression with clinicopathological variables or patient outcomes in any primary ovarian tumors.