Lavage of the Uterine Cavity for the Diagnosis of Ovarian and Tubal Carcinoma - Study of Sensitivity and Specificity

The ovarian surface, the Fallopian tubes, the uterine cavity and the peritoneal cavity all together form a communicating compartment. The physiologic function of the ciliated lining of the tubes is to transport the egg, after ovulation, into the uterine cavity. Thus, making it very likely that exfoliated cells from pathologic changes of the ovarian surface and Fallopian tube lining will be present in a lavage from the uterine cavity. The proof of concept that malignant cells from the upper genital tract get transported even into the lower genital tract was recently published by Kind I. et al. Liquid-based cervical cytology allows not only cytological evaluation but also collection of DNA. A panel of genes that are commonly mutated in endometrial and ovarian cancers was assembled with new whole-exome sequencing data from 22 endometrial cancers and previously published data on other tumour types, including mutations in the TP53 gene. This panel was used to search for mutations in 24 endometrial and 22 ovarian cancers and identified mutations in all 46 samples. With a sensitive massively parallel sequencing method, it was possible to identify the same mutations in the DNA from liquid Pap smear specimens in 100% of endometrial cancers (24 of 24) and in 41% of ovarian cancers (9 of 22). In the current project the investigators will study the specificity and sensitivity of the lavage of uterine cavity and proximal tubes as a test to differentiate between malign and benign ovarian tumours. The investigators aim to detect cells from EOCs or genetic material from those cells in the lavage.