Assessment of magnetic resonance imaging findings in ovarian granulosa cell tumors along with clinical prognostic factors

Abstract

Aim: To determine the role of preoperative MRI in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with granulosa cell tumors (GCTs) of the ovary.

Materials and methods: Twenty-four patients who were operated on between 2018 and 2022 and who were pathologically diagnosed with GHT and met the inclusion criteria were retrospectively examined. The findings were compared with the patients' demographic data, symptoms, surgical findings (laterality, stage, lymph node involvement, endometrial pathology, tumor size), and CA-125 levels.

Results: The final cohort included 24 patients with a mean age of 54.71 ± 16.52. All the patients had the pathological diagnosis of adult type GCT. In the morphological evaluation, the most common finding was a solid-cystic mixed type (14 patients, 58.3%), while intratumoral hemorrhage signal was observed in 10 patients (41.7%). In the majority of cases (91.7%), the mass showed regular contours. The honeycomb/Swiss cheese sign was detected in 54.2% of the cases. When the T1 and T2 signal of the solid component of the mass were examined relative to the myometrium, the majority of GCTs appeared isointense on both sequences (83.3% and 62.5%, respectively). The mean ADC value of the solid component obtained from diffusion-weighted imaging was 0.78 ± 0.15 × 10^-3. Pelvic fluid was observed in 41.7% of the cases. The average endometrial thickness was 9.74 ± 6.43 mm. Thickened endometrium more than 9 mm was observed in 9 out of the remaining 21 patients (42.9%).

Conclusion: Understanding the key imaging features for GCTs plays an essential role in the diagnosis and guiding the treatment effectively.

Keywords: MRI; granulosa cell tumor; ovarian cancer.