An immunohistochemical approach for the radiosensitivity in carcinoma of the uterine cervix

The problem of radiation sensitivity has been discussed histologically or cytologically to select an appropriate mode of the treatment for cervical carcinoma. We tried to assess the radiosensitivity prior to irradiation using immunohistochemical technique. Epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) was studied by the indirect immunoperoxidase staining in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens taken from 40 patients with Stage IIIb cervical carcinoma prior to irradiation. All of cervical carcinoma were histologically squamous cell carcinoma (large cell non-keratinizing type) and treated with irradiation (RALS 3,000 rads, Linac 5,000 rads) during 1979 to 1980 at the Cancer Institute Hospital, Tokyo. One group of 20 cases have achieved 5 year-suvival and the other group of 20 cases were dead. The staining pattern of EMA was correlated with radiation effect. The cases with focal staining pattern tended to be radiosensitive although the cases with diffuse staining pattern were not only radio-resistent but also poor in prognosis. The study of radiation sensitivity is essentially concerned with each tumor biology. It is useful to evaluate radiosensitivity before irradiation without a test dose of radiation and to select an appropriate mode of the treatment for cervical carcinoma. (author)