Local immune response in squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix

The role of Langerhans cells as antigen-presenting cells was examined in ce rvical carcinomas. Frozen samples were obtained from 34 women with stage lb and II cervical carcinomas. Langerhans cells (CD1), T lymphocytes (CD4 and CD8), B lymphocytes (CD22), and natural killer (CD57, NK) cells were all q uantitatively assessed in cervical carcinomas using immunohistochemical met hods. These results were related to the MHC class I and II expression on th e tumor cells. The majority of Langerhans cells were distributed among canc er cells and they were positively correlated with CD4+, NK and B cells in c ervical carcinomas. This is suggestive of the presence of local immune resp onse. The numbers of Langerhans, CD4+, CD8+ and NK cells did not significan tly correlate with age at operation, lymph node metastases or depth of cerv ical wall invasion. The downregulation of MHC class I expression found in 8 (24%) carcinomas was not associated with the decrease in the number of imm unologic cells. The upregulation of MHC class II expression found in 26 (76 %) carcinomas was significantly associated with the increase in the number of Langerhans cells (p < 0.007). However, the association between the upreg ulation of MHC-II expression and CD4+ cells did not reach statistical signi ficance (p < 0.07). This is probably due to a small case in this study. MHC -II-restricted immunity may partly contribute to the local immune response in stages lb and II squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Copyrigh t (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.