Q fever is a worldwide zoonosis caused by the rickettsial organism Coxiella burnetii, an obligate intracellular organism, living in the phagolysosome of infected cells. Coxiella burnetii is extremely infectious for human and animals and it is
responsible for both acute and chronic disease.
As in other infection with intracellular parasites, host defence in Q fever is dependent on cell-mediated immunity in which T cells enhance the microbicidal action of macrophages. Recently several cases of Q fever arising in the patient with
immunocompromised conditions including malignancy have been reported but little attention was given to the cancer patients with Q fever.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of serum C. burnetii antigen in cervical cancer patients and to compare the prognostic factors of stage, cell type and tumor markers in coxiellemia and non-coxiellemia cervical cancer
patients.
With use of rabbit antiserum to C. burnetii as first antibody and a fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated anti-serum to rabbit immunoglobulin as secondary antibody. C. burnetii was examine by immunofluorescence method in 20 cervical cancer
patients
and
10 controls(benign gynecologic disease).
Coxiellemia was found in 25% of cervical cancer patients and 0% of controls respectively but statistically showed no significant difference (P>0.05). Also there was no significant difference in stage, cell type, SCC antigen level and urine
polyamine
between coxiellemia and non-coxiellemia cervical cancer patients.
In conclusion, we found that 25% of cervical cancer patients were diagnosed as C. burnetii infection even though majority of patients did not have clinical symptoms of Q fever, And C. burnetii infection was not correlated with stage, cell type
and
tumor
markers in cervical cancer
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