Kontakt 2007, 9(1):157-163 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2007.021

Importance of immunohistochemical examination in cervical precancerosesBiomedicine

Jana Vaculová^*, Jaroslav Horáček, Petra Bystroňová

Ostravská univerzita, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, Ústav patologické anatomie

Problems of cervical dysplasias and neoplasias are a frequently discussed topic at health and social levels. Cervical carcinoma is the second most important cause of the death due to cancer diseases in women next to the mammary carcinoma throughout the world and the main cause of the death for cancer diseases in women living in developing countries. The origination of cervical carcinoma is a complex multi-step process preceded by a many-year stage of precanceroses of different degrees of their severity. The precancerous cervical lesions are mostly asymptomatic and their presence can be revealed by the cytological or histological examination only. The purpose of the present work was to contribute to the diagnostics of cervical precancerous lesions with the help of the application of immunohistochemical methods to bioptic material. A group of 60 women with diagnosis of cervical precancerosis was monitored (dysplasia, carcinoma in situ). The histopathological diagnosis was established after standard processing of bioptic material through the histological technique based on histological mounts stained by basic histological methods of staining. Selected samples were subjected to immunohistochemical methods with following and comparing the expression of protein p16, protein p53 and proliferation markers Ki-67 and PCNA. We expected a correlation of the proliferation activity with the degree of dysplastic changes. The dysplastic changes exert deviations in the structure of the nucleus and cytoplasma and cellular restlessness (elevated proliferation activity), visible even in basic histological staining. The immunohistochemical detection of proliferation markers corresponded to the degree of precancerosis in almost all the cases. The intensity of the protein p16 expression also correlated with the degree of the dysplasia and the detection of protein p53 was not statistically significant. The results indicate that the immunohistochemical examination of proliferation markers and protein p16 can help refine the diagnostics of precursor lesions of cervical carcinoma. The use of at least one of the proliferation markers and protein p16 can be helpful in the diagnostics of minor punch biopsies and mainly in the assessment of resection margins of conizates, which can encounter difficulties in basic histological staining.

Keywords: Cervix; dysplasia; diagnostics; immunohistochemistry

Received: April 12, 2007; Accepted: May 8, 2007; Published: June 15, 2007  Show citation