Abstract

During the past 1 year the authors experienced 2 cases of fetal cerebellum in an immature teratomaof the ovary which were diagnosed by the histopathological examination of the tumor mass removed by the surgical operation. The first case was a 15-year-old female. At laparatomy an infant head sized mass at the site of the right ovary was removed. The ovary was replaced by a large, predominantly solid and focally cystic mass which weighed 810 gms. and measured 16x14x11 cm. The second case was a 10-year-old female. The right ovary was replaced by a large cystic and focally solid mass which weighed 730 gms. and measured 15x13x10 cm. The cystic portion of the tumor was made up to multiloculated cysts filled with serous fluid. Microscopically, the first case showed an abundant mature tissue from the three germ layers, but this was intermixed with small foci of neuroepithelial tubules present in groups. Well formed fetal cerebellar folia(18 folia) characterized by a definite external granular cell layer, molecular layer, Purkinje neurons and an internal granular cell layer was identified. The second case revealed a predominantly mature tissue. Mature elements from the three germ layers were present. There are small foci of immature neural tissue growing largely in the form of neuroepithelial tubules. Fetal cerebellum with well formed folia(13 folia) was also identified. A brief review of the literature and a discussion on the clinicopathological correlations were made.