Accuracy rate of frozen section studies in ovarian cancers: A regional cancer institute experience

BACKGROUND: Frozen section is a valuable diagnostic procedure in the categorization of ovarian tumors as benign, borderline and malignant. Thus, it guides in tailoring surgical therapy, particularly in young women. AIM: This study was undertaken to determine the accuracy of frozen section in ovarian neoplasms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was done of intraoperative frozen sections for suspected ovarian neoplasms. The frozen and permanent section reports were compared and overall accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were determined. RESULTS: The study included 135 patients and the overall accuracy of frozen section in determining malignancy was 84.25%. Twenty cases were incorrectly diagnosed, of which 16 cases were under-diagnosed and four were over-diagnosed. With respect to malignant potential, the sensitivity for malignant tumors was highest (91.5%) with specificity of 98.2%. For benign tumors, the sensitivity and specificity were 90.4% and 82.6%, respectively. Borderline tumors had the lowest sensitivity of 31.2% with specificity of 94%. Sensitivity for benign, borderline and malignant tumors in the non-mucinous group was 91.3%, 60% and 95% respectively, whereas the sensitivity was 75%, 18% and 57%, respectively, for mucinous tumors revealing low sensitivity in borderline, mucinous tumors. The low sensitivity rates were due to restriction in the sampling of an adequate number of bits in the large sized tumors. CONCLUSION: The present study concurs that frozen section is an accurate test for diagnosis of benign and malignant tumors. However, accuracy rates for borderline and mucinous tumors are low.