Rates of cellular proliferation and DNA synthesis have been shown to be important factors in the prognosis of many human malignancies.
Several nuclear proteins have recently been described that are expressed in proliferating and transformed cells, but absent in resting cells.
Among these nuclear proteins, proliferating cell nuclear antigen(PCNA) is present in very small amounts in normal nondividing cells or tissues, and appears in significantly increased amounts in the late G-1 phase and S-phase of the cell cycle, immediately preceding DNA synthesis.
The purpose of this study was to clarify significances of PCNA as a marker of cellular proliferation and possible indicator of diagnosis and prognosis in squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix.
Immunohistochemical staining to identify PCNA was applied 47 cases paraffin section from the normal(5), carcinoma in situ(14), microinvasive carcinoma(6) and invasive carcinoma(22). Dark-brown nuclear staining was regarded as positive PCNA reaction and the proportion of the positive cells was calculated by counting the positive nuclei among total cells on five(x 1,000) fields.
The results were summarized as follows:
1) Expression rates of PCNA were 28±3.1% in normal squamous epithelium.
2) Expression rates of PCNA were 66.1± 6.05%, 71.7±4.49%, 70.6±9.26% and 69.1±8.89% in CIS, microinvasive, keratinizing invasive and large cell, non-keratinizing invasive squamous cell carcinoma, respectively and markedly increased than normal cervix, but there was no significant differences in CIS and invasive carcinoma.
The malignancy points were 12.1±1.12, 12.3±0.95, 6.0±2.67 and 15.8±2.16 in CIS, microinvasive carcinoma, keratinizing invasive carcinoma and large cell, non-keratinizing invasive carcinoma, respectively and there was no significant differences according to histopathologic diagnosis.
There was no correlation between expression rates of PCNA and malignancy points in CIS, microinvasive carcinoma and invasive carcinoma.
3) Expression rates of PCNA were 66.1±6.05%, 71.7±4.49%, 57.3±10.38%, 67.4±3.69% and 77.6±4.82% in stage O, Ia, Ib, IIa, and over IIb, respectively, and there was no statistical significancy according to each stages of squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix.
The malignancy points were 12.1±1.12, 12.3±0.95, 15.7±2.19, 16.6±1.84 and 15.4±2.83 in stage O, Ia, Ib, IIa and over IIb, respectively, and there was no significant differences according to each clinical stages.
There was no statistical correlation between expression rates of PCNA and the malignancy points according to each clinical stages.
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