Retiform differentiation in ovarian Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors. A clinicopathologic study of six cases from a Gynecologic Oncology Group study.

This report analyzes six ovarian Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors that showed retiform differentiation. The patients were young (6-29 years; average age, 17). The tumors were all limited to one ovary, and the patients have remained disease-free, with one exception, a patient who died of recurrent neoplasm 3.5 years after operation. On microscopic examination, the retiform areas were predominant in three cases and focal in the other three. The retiform areas consisted of an irregular anastomosing network of spaces lined by cuboidal cells, often with papillary formations and sometimes with tubules compressed to form slit-like spaces. In three cases the retiform areas appeared mature, and in three they were less differentiated. All tumors also had areas of typical Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor of either poor or intermediate differentiation. In the patient with metastatic disease, the metastases had a pure sarcomatoid pattern without any retiform areas.