The prognostic value of nuclear roundness and neopterin in ovarian cancer.

The prognostic value of clinical factors, morphometric features and neopterin, a marker for macrophage activation, was investigated retrospectively in 68 ovarian carcinoma patients. Nuclear roundness was a good predictor of patient survival. About 50% of our patients showed neopterin concentrations above the cut-off level of 275 mumol/mol creatinine. Interestingly, those patients with elevated urinary neopterin concentration, and thus displaying a sign of activation of cell-mediated immunity, had a shorter survival than those with normal concentration. Applying a multivariate Cox regression analysis, the only independent parameters predicting patient survival were FIGO stage, residual disease, nuclear roundness and neopterin.