Antígeno nuclear de proliferación celular en cáncer de cuello uterino y lesiones precursoras / Nuclear antigen of cellular proliferation in uterine cervix cancer and precursor lesions

The aim of this study was to study the degree of cellular proliferation quantifying the immunohistochemical expression of the proliferating cell nuclear antigen. We assessed paraffin embedded samples od 25 infiltrating epidermoid cervical carcinomas, 76 precursor lesions (34 of low and 42 of high grade), 29 normal and 13 metaplastic epidermoid epithelia. Mean values of proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression were 13.7 percent in normal epithelia, 15.7 percent in epidermoid metaplasia, 37.1 percent in low grade precursor lesions (35.3 percent in condilomas and 38.8 percent in mild dysplasia), 48.7 percent in high grade lesions (47.9 percent in moderate dysplasia, 50.5 percent in severe dysplasia and 50 percent in carcinoma in situ) and 54.7 percent in infiltrating carcinoma. There were differences in proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression and mitotic index between low grade precursor lesions and high grade lesions and infiltrating carcinoma. No correlation was observed between mitotic index and proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression. We conclude that infiltrating epidermoid cervical carcinoma and its precursor lesions have a high level of proliferative activity, demonstrated by a high percentage of cells in active phases of the cellular cycle

Effect of levamisole as an immunomodulating agent in trophoblastic lesions.

Both cell mediated immunity and humoral immunity was assessed in 16 patients of hydatidiform mole and 6 patients of choriocarcinoma. Fifty percent patients of choriocarcinoma and 11 patients of vesicular mole were given levamisole (LVM) trial and were followed for 2 months. Absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) was significantly increased in vesicular mole after levamisole treatment but in choriocarcinoma no effect was obtained. Marked improvement of T cell rosette count was also seen in LVM treated patient of both vesicular mole (p < 0.001) and choriocarcinoma. Cutaneous DTH response to 2:4 DNCB in vesicular mole was also increased after LVM. Before treatment only 31.25% patients had strong cutaneous response but after treatment 53.35% patients had strong response, while cases of choriocarcinoma were unaffected. LVM also raised all the serum immunoglobulins (IgG, IgM, IgA) in both vesicular mole and choriocarcinoma. Hence, levamisole therapy was found to have a beneficial effect on both cellular and humoral immunity in the lesions of trophoblasts.