Obstetrics & Gynecology Science

Original Article: Korean J Obstet Gynecol. 2001;44(5):877-884. Published online May 1, 2001.; Detection and culture of Ureaplasma urealyticum in Ovarian Cancer.; Tae Hong Yeo, Won Il Seok, Heung Yeol Kim; ¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, University of Kosin, Busan, Korea.
²Dr. Jung & Bang Woman's Clinic, Busan, Korea.

Abstract: BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES:According to recent studies, Mycoplasma DNA was positive in 20% of uterine cervical cancer tissue and 48% of gastric cancer tissue. It also showed the correlation with human cancers and infection of Mycoplasma. Ureaplasma urealyticum(U. urealyticum) is a bacteria of high infection rate in women's urogenital system, but it is difficult to find a report about the relations to cancer. So, the objectives of this studies are to investigate the infection rate of the U. urealyticum from Korean women's ovarian cancer, borderline ovarian cancer and benign ovarian tumor, and to discover the relationship between these ovarian tumors with U. urealyticum's infection. METHODS: In obstetrics and gynecology department of Kosin medical college, the PCR procedure and cultivation was performed on extracted cancer tissues of 22 ovarian cancer patients and 5 borderline ovarian cancer patients who had operation, and it was also performed on 30 benign ovarian tumor patients as an control group. RESULTS: The detection freguency of U. urealyticum in ovarian cancer tissue was 31.8% (7/22) which was higher than 13.3% (4/30) of benign ovarian tumor but had no statistical relation (p=0.318). In borderline ovarian cancer, the detection frequency was 0.0% (0/5). The infection frequency of U. urealyticum was 22.7% (5/22) in ovarian cancer tissue and 0.0% (0/5) in borderline ovarian tumor and 3.3% (1/30) in benign ovarian tumor, so the infection frequency was higher in ovarian cancer tissue than benign ovarian tumor which was showing statistical relation (p=0.024). The detection frequency of U. urealyticum from benign ovarian tumor tissue was 23.0% (3/13) in mature teratoma and 16.7% (1/6) in epithelial ovarian tumor, which was showing higher frequency in mature teratoma but had no statistical relation(p=0.589). The infection frequency was showed only in epithelial ovarian tumor as 16.7% (1/6) but also had no statistical relation(p=0.388). The detection frequency of U. urealyticum followed by the FIGO stage of malignant ovarian cancer was 33% in stage I and 30.8% (4/13) in stage III, which was higher in stage I but had no statistical relation(p=0.662). The infection frequency was 11.1% (1/9) in stage I and 30.8% (4/13) in stage III, which was higher in stage III but had no statistical relation(p=0.360). CONCLUSION: With the above results, there was no significant relation between U. urealyticum infection and ovarian cancer. There is, however, few study and case on ovarian cancer internally and externally. It is considered that more studies on the subject with much cases should be made.

Keywords :Ureaplasma urealyticum;Malignant ovarian cancer