Mineralogy of psammoma bodies in two types of ovarian tumors

Psammoma body is a common form of calcification in pathological diagnosis and has close relevance to tumors. This paper focuses on mineralization in two types of ovarian tumors, ovarian serous cancer (6 cases) and teratoma (2 cases), using mineralogical research methods, such as POM, ESEM, EDX, TEM, μ-SRXRD and μ-SRXRF to investigate the psammoma bodies both in the tissue and separated. The results show that psammoma body consists of round and short column minerals which assembled lamellately. Its formation is closely related to collagenous fibers. In ovarian serous cancer and teratoma, the maximum diameters of the psammoma bodies are 35 μm and 70 μm respectively, and the main mineral compositions are carbonate hydroxyapatite (Ca5[PO4, CO3]3 (OH)) and hydroxyapatite (Ca5(PO4)3 (OH)) respectively. There is also Na, Mg, Zn, Fe, Sr, Cu and other elements in psammoma bodies. Zn can take place of Ca in the crystal lattices.