A Study on the Localization of the Carcinoembryonic Antigen in Uterine Cervical Dysplasia Carcinoma

The uterine cervical neoplasia has been generally classified following categories included such as dysplasia, carcinoma in situ, microinvasive carcinoma, invasive carcinoma and therpeutic method depended upon types of classification. Recent advances in tumor markers offer new horizon in the pathology of uterine cervix. For instance, carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA), one of the best known tumor markers, has been detected in tissue section of cervical neoplasia. In view of rather than tissue loation of CEA and in the hope of chages of the CEA in cervical neoplasia, aothour has undertaken a study of preinvasive and invasive epithelial lesions of the uterine cervix by immunoperoxidase technique. Seventy-nine cases of uterine cervical neoplasia were subclassified and studied by peroxidase anti-peroxidase method(PAP) for the presence of carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA). The following results were obtained : 1) Normal squamous epithelium was lack of CEA but the cervical neoplastic epithelium showed CEA positivity in 73 of 79 cases(92.4%). 2) Preinvasive lesions, dysplasia and carcinoma in situ showed CEA-positivity cells in 37 of 39 cases(94.9%) while ivasive lesions had CEA-positivity cells in 29 of 33 cases(87.9%). 3) The squamous epithelium of dysplasia revealed CEA positivity in all cases. In mild to moderate dysplasia, CEA-positive cells were present at the ypper layers of squamous epithelium. However, the severe dysplasia showed positive cells throughout the water layers. 4) The pattern of CEA staining in carcinoma in situ was shown in epithelial leyers except basal cells but the intensity was more strong in the luminal border of carci-noma in situ with glandular involvement. 5) Antigen was present in 57.1% of small cell non keratinizing squamous carcinoma as compared with 100% in large cell keratinizing and large cell nonkeratizing tumors. 6) The pattern of CEA tissue distribution in invasive carcinoma was shown in tumor cells adjacent to stroma, and percentage(27.2%) of strong positivity was twice higher than that(2.8%) of perinvasive lesion. 7) In adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous carcinoma moderate to strong positivity for CEA was seen in glandular epitheium and stroma. These investigation has shown that CEA emerges as a useful tumor marker in cervical neoplasia. The localization of CEA by immunoperoxidase technique may add objectivity in the diagnosis of cervical neoplasia by virtue of positive staining pattern.