Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Oct;177(4):1611-7.
doi: 10.2353/ajpath.2010.100212. Epub 2010 Aug 27.

BRAF mutation is rare in advanced-stage low-grade ovarian serous carcinomas

Kwong-Kwok Wong  1 , Yvonne T M Tsang, Michael T Deavers, Samuel C Mok, Zhifei Zu, Charlotte Sun, Anais Malpica, Judith K Wolf, Karen H Lu, David M Gershenson
Affiliations

BRAF mutation is rare in advanced-stage low-grade ovarian serous carcinomas

Kwong-Kwok Wong et al. Am J Pathol. 2010 Oct.

Abstract

Low-grade ovarian serous carcinomas are believed to arise via an adenoma-serous borderline tumor-serous carcinoma sequence. In this study, we found that advanced-stage, low-grade ovarian serous carcinomas both with and without adjacent serous borderline tumor shared similar regions of loss of heterozygosity. We then analyzed 91 ovarian tumor samples for mutations in TP53, BRAF, and KRAS. TP53 mutations were not detected in any serous borderline tumors (n = 30) or low-grade serous carcinomas (n = 43) but were found in 73% of high-grade serous carcinomas (n = 18). BRAF (n = 9) or KRAS (n = 5) mutation was detected in 47% of serous borderline tumors, but among the low-grade serous carcinomas (39 stage III, 2 stage II, and 2 stage I), only one (2%) had a BRAF mutation and eight (19%) had a KRAS mutation. The low frequency of BRAF mutations in advanced-stage, low-grade serous carcinomas, which contrasts with previous findings, suggests that aggressive, low-grade serous carcinomas are more likely derived from serous borderline tumors without BRAF mutation. In addition, advanced-stage, low-grade carcinoma patients with BRAF or KRAS mutation have a better apparent clinical outcome. However, further investigation is needed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analysis of low-grade ovarian serous carcinoma with 50K SNP arrays. LOH regions were highlighted in blue color. Stars indicate Tumors with a KRAS mutation. SBOT, serous borderline ovarian tumor. LG/SBOT, low-grade serous tumor with adjacent serous borderline tumor. LG, low-grade serous tumor without adjacent serous borderline tumor.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Genes differentially expressed between serous borderline tumors with BRAF mutation (Braf) and serous borderline tumors without BRAF mutation (wt).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Malpica A, Deavers MT, Lu K, Bodurka DC, Atkinson EN, Gershenson DM, Silva EG. Grading ovarian serous carcinoma using a two-tier system. Am J Surg Pathol. 2004;28:496–504. - PubMed
    1. Vang R, Shih Ie M, Salani R, Sugar E, Ayhan A, Kurman RJ. Subdividing ovarian and peritoneal serous carcinoma into moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated does not have biologic validity based on molecular genetic and in vitro drug resistance data. Am J Surg Pathol. 2008;32:1667–1674. - PubMed
    1. Gershenson DM, Sun CC, Lu KH, Coleman RL, Sood AK, Malpica A, Deavers MT, Silva EG, Bodurka DC. Clinical behavior of stage II–IV low-grade serous carcinoma of the ovary. Obstet Gynecol. 2006;108:361–368. - PubMed
    1. Schmeler KM, Sun CC, Bodurka DC, Deavers MT, Malpica A, Coleman RL, Ramirez PT, Gershenson DM. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for low-grade serous carcinoma of the ovary or peritoneum. Gynecol Oncol. 2008;108:510–514. - PubMed
    1. Gershenson DM, Sun CC, Bodurka D, Coleman RL, Lu KH, Sood AK, Deavers M, Malpica AL, Kavanagh JJ. Recurrent low-grade serous ovarian carcinoma is relatively chemoresistant. Gynecol Oncol. 2009;114:48–52. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms