Sex Cord-Stromal, Steroid Cell, and Other Ovarian Tumors with Endocrine, Paraendocrine, and Paraneoplastic Manifestations

Abstract

This category of ovarian neoplasms includes all those that contain granulosa cells, theca cells and their luteinized derivatives, Sertoli cells, Leydig cells, and fibroblasts of gonadal stromal origin, singly or in various combinations, and in varying degrees of differentiation.247–250,311,316,320 The generic terms that have been most widely applied to these tumors reflect differing views of gonadal embryology. Those investigators who are convinced that all the cell types listed above are derived from the mesenchyme, or specialized stroma, of the genital ridge have proposed the terms mesenchymomas44 and gonadal stromal tumors for these neoplasms.197,198,204 In contrast, other investigators, recognizing that many embryologists favor the participation of coelomic and mesonephric epithelium in the formation of the sex cords, which are the proximal precursors of granulosa and Sertoli cells, have preferred the terms sex cord-mesenchyme tumors187,244 and sex cord-stromal tumors. 257