VIMENTIN INTERMEDIATE FILAMENT EXPRESSION IN UTERINE CERVICAL-CARCINOMA

The expression of vimentin intermediate filament has been examined in 62 cases of stage IB/IIA uterine cervical carcinoma as it has been dem onstrated that some vimentin-positive epithelial neoplasms arising in the breast, stomach and kidney have an aggressive clinical behavior. N o correlation was found between vimentin staining in cervical carcinom as and tumor differentiation, lymph node status or clinical outcome al though vimentin-positive adenocarcinomas had a nonstatistically signif icant tendency to lack metastases. Despite being over-expressed in eac h of the three main tumor subtypes, it appears unlikely that vimentin analysis will prove to be useful as a prognostic indicator in uterine cervical carcinoma.