Cell-stiffness and morphological architectural patterns in clinical samples of high grade serous ovarian cancers

High grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is recognized as the most frequent type of ovarian cancer and the main cause of ovarian cancer related deaths worldwide. Although homologous recombination deficiency testing has been adopted in the clinical workflow, morphological analysis remains the main diagnostic tool. In this study Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) was tested in standard hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained sections to investigate the biomechanical properties of different architectural growing patterns of HGSOC. Our results showed that AFM was able to discriminate HGSOC morphological growing patterns as well as patients’ stage. Micropapillary pattern, which has been associated to poor outcome, had lower Young’s moduli. In addition stage IV HGSOC was significantly softer than stage III cancers. Based on our results, AFM analysis could represent an additional tool in HGSOC morphological diagnosis as the biomechanical proprieties of HGSOC were quantitatively associated to tumor staging and architectural pattern.