Purpose: Germline mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes confer increased susceptibility to ovarian cancer. There is evidence that tumors in carriers may exhibit a distinct distribution of pathological features, but previous studies on the pathology of such tumors have been small. Our aim was to evaluate the morphologies and immunophenotypes in a large cohort of patients with familial ovarian cancer.Experimental Design: We performed a systematic review of ovarian tumors from 178 BRCA1 mutation carriers, 29 BRCA2 mutation carriers, and 235 controls with a similar age distribution. Tumors were evaluated by four pathologists blinded to mutation status. Both morphological features and immunochemical staining for p53 and HER2 were evaluated.Results: Tumors in BRCA1 mutation carriers were more likely than tumors in age-matched controls to be invasive serous adenocarcinomas (odds ratio, 1.84; 95% confidence interval, 1.21-2.79) and unlikely to be borderline or mucinous tumors. Tumors in BRCA1 carriers were of higher grade (P < 0.0001), had a higher percentage solid component (P ‫؍‬ 0.001), and were more likely to stain strongly for p53 (P ‫؍‬ 0.018). The distribution of pathological features in BRCA2 carriers was similar to that in BRCA1 carriers.Conclusions: Use of pathological features can substantially improve the targeting of predictive genetic testing. Results also suggest that BRCA1 and BRCA2 tumors are relatively aggressive and may be expected to have poor prognosis, although this may be treatment dependent.

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Summary Paediatric recommendations for unfractionated heparin (UFH) management are extrapolated from adult trials, a practice that may contribute to the inferior UFH‐related outcomes in children compared to adults. This is the first study to determine UFH concentration in a population of children and correlated UFH concentration with measures of UFH effect. Correlation coefficients between protamine titration (concentration) and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), anti‐ activated factor X (Xa) assay and thrombin clotting time (effect) were 0·59, 0·46 and 0·52 respectively. A protamine titration level of 0·2–0·4 iu/ml in children was not equivalent to an anti‐Xa assay of 0·35–0·7 iu/ml but to an anti‐Xa assay 0·17–0·85 iu/ml. In addition, use of the anti‐Xa or protamine titration assays to establish an APTT therapeutic range resulted in upper limits of APTT ranges exceeding 200 s. Existing methods for determining therapeutic ranges for UFH in adult populations do not produce equivalent ranges in children. As a result, paediatric clinical guidelines that state a therapeutic range for UFH can be determined using a protamine titration assay of 0·2–0·4 iu/ml or an anti‐Xa assay of 0·35–0·7 iu/ml are not based on appropriate evidence. There is an urgent need for change in our approach to the use of UFH in children.

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