Pathological prognostic indicators in cervical cancer with particular reference to patients under the age of 40 years.

The presence of lymph node metastases in patients with cervical cancer is an important predictor of death and recurrence of disease. Lymph node metastases are more common in patients with mucus-secreting carcinomas than in women with pure squamous carcinomas even in what appears, clinically, to be early stage disease: such neoplasms are more frequent in women under the age of 40 years. The recognition of mucus secretion in a carcinoma and the detection of vascular permeation adjacent to the primary neoplasm identifies the patient at greatest risk of having pelvic lymph node metastases.