Background. Adenocarcinoma of the fallopian tube is a rare tumor with a poor prognosis. Whether these carcinomas possess any genetic changes that contribute to their malignant behavior is unknown and to date few studies regarding the molecular pathogenesis of these tumors have been reported. In adenocarcinoma of the endo‐metrium, mutations in the first exon of K‐ras, although relatively infrequent, were observed to be an independent risk factor for poor clinical outcome. Methods. Eight patients with adenocarcinoma of the fallopian tube were examined for mutations in the 12th codon of K‐ras. DNA was obtained from single sections of paraffin embedded tumor tissue and the first exon of K‐ras was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. Point mutations were assayed using a nonradioactive restriction fragment length polymorphism technique. Results. The eight patients in this study varied in clinical stage from I‐IV and were all treated with surgery and chemotherapy. Six of eight of the patients died and one of the surviving patients had metastases in the vertebrae. K‐ras point mutations were detected at codon 12 in seven of the eight tumors (87.5%). Conclusions. K‐ras mutations occurred with high frequency in this series of eight patients with fallopian tube carcinoma, suggesting that mutations of this protooncogene could play an important role in the molecular pathogenesis of this lesion.

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