Correlative light and immunohistological study of the HCG-like antigen in the squamous cell carcinoma of the human uterine cervix.

Immunoperoxidase reactions with the use of anti-HCG antibody was applied to formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded sections of 52 squamous cell carcinomas of human uterine cervix. These include 19 cases of carcinoma in situ, 5 microinvasive and 28 invasive squamous cell carcinomas. We found that the HCG-like antigen was present in a few cells of cancer cell nests and didn't distribute as found on the syncytiotrophoblastic cells. We couldn't correlate the presence or absence of HCG-like antigen to histological degrees of cancer cell differentiation and lymphocyte infiltrations. This antigen seemed to occur in lymphatic type more than in cirrhotic type, although no statistical significant correlation could be found. These results were discussed in the association of immunological meaning of HCG.