Our present immunohistochemical study of 248 well-characterized patients showed high levels of ALDH1 expression in ovarian carcinoma cells, which were observed in 15.7 % of the total cases, was associated with early-stage tumor, well-differentiated tumor and better survivals, although ALDH1 was not an independent risk factor in multivariate analysis. The gene discussed is ALDH1A1; the disease is neoplasm.