INTRODUCTIONHippocrates hypothesized that the menstrual function is to purge women of their bad humors, which means that menstruation is a process by which a women's body cleans itself of unhealthy elements on a cyclical basis.¹ Many women suffer from various gynecological problems. Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is the commonest presenting symptom, which has a significant morbidity and interferes with the personal, family, social and sexual life. Women of the present generation experience more number of menstrual cycles, which could be due to decreased parity and reduced length of lactational amenorrhea. 2Endometrial sampling is the gold standard for the evaluation of endometrial neoplasias, hyperplasias, metaplasias, pill induced and functional endometrial abnormalities.3 Transvaginalsonography is useful for the measurement of endometrial thickness and pattern, hyperplasias, organic causes like leiomyomas and endometrial malignancies. 4 Though newer surgical ABSTRACT Background: Abnormal uterine bleeding is the cause for many disturbances in women who are in the reproductive age group. Frequent and prolonged periods will lead to morbidity, social embarrassment, diminished quality of life and compromise of the sexual life. Methods: It is a hospital based cross sectional study conducted in the department of pathology, Andhra medical college. A total of 270 patients in the age group of 18 to 45 years were included in this study. Endometrial samples were obtained and histopathological examinations were conducted. All the clinical details and investigation reports were collected. Results: The age group of patients in this study ranged from 18 to 45 years. Maximum numbers of cases (169) were in the age group of 36 to 45 years (62.6%). Most of the patients were multipara (244 cases, 90.37%) and most common presenting complaint was heavy menstrual bleeding (198 cases, 73.3%). Majority of the patients were euthyroid (247 cases, 91.5%). Normal cyclical endometrium was found to be the commonest histopathological pattern with proliferative endometrium in 45.56% and secretory endometrium in 32.59% cases. Leiomyomas were found to be the commonest cause of abnormal uterine bleeding (15.56%). Bulky / enlarged uterus (77%) and type-IV (hyperechoic) endometrium, depicting the secretory endometrial pattern (36.66%) was the most common finding on transvaginal sonography (TVS). Conclusions: Histopathological examination is the gold standard for studying the pattern of endometrium in various causes of abnormal uterine bleeding.

INTRODUCTIONOvarian cancer is the second most common gynecologic malignancy, the most common cause of gynecologic cancer death, and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in women in developed countries.1 In India, ovarian cancer is the third leading site of cancer among women, trailing behind cervix and breast cancer. Each year, over 22,000 women are diagnosed worldwide with epithelial ovarian cancer and 15,000 die of it.2 In patients with cancers of the breast and endometrium, the relationship between tumor estrogen and progesterone receptor (PR) expression and prognosis is well documented. Estrogen is considered a primary culprit in the development of ovarian cancer as 70% of ovarian cancers express estrogen receptors (ERs), whereas progesterone and its receptors are protective against ovarian cancer. 3,4However, the clinical significance of ER and PR content in ovarian carcinomas has not been well established due to conflicting data from only a few immunohistochemical studies available in the literature.The present study was taken up to understand the disease morbidity and to know the role of steroid receptors in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancers. ABSTRACTBackground: Ovarian cancer is the second most common gynaecologic malignancy, most common cause of gynaecologic cancer death and has worst prognosis among all gynecological malignancies. The clinical significance of ER and PR content in ovarian carcinomas has not been well established in the literature. Methods: A prospective study was conducted over a period of 2 years (2013)(2014)(2015) in the department of pathology, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. The study includes 42 cases of ovarian cancers. Representative 3-4μm sections were taken and IHC was performed with specific antibodies. Results: The mean age at presentation was 39.5 years, majority of the ovarian carcinomas occurred in the age group of third and fifth decade (20/42). The commonest clinical presentation was mass per abdomen. The commonest histological type was malignant surface epithelial tumors (25/42, 59.55%) of which serous cystadenocarcinioma was the predominant tumor followed by germ cell tumors (9/42, 21.42%). Ascites was associated with higher grade and higher stage of tumors. Majority of the ovarian carcinomas were of grade 2 (57.14%) and stage 3 (35.7%). ER was positive in (9/42) 21.42%, PR was positive in (10/42) 23.8% and Her2/neu was equivocal in (3/42) 7.14% of ovarian carcinomas. ER, PR and Her2 showed similar expression, with higher expression in cases of advanced disease. Conclusions: The expression of steroid hormonal receptors in ovarian cancers paves way for antihormonal therapy/ targeted therapy and this requires more number of studies with larger sample size.