Histopathology And Natural Course Of Cervical Cancer

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[edit] Histopathology And Natural Course Of Cervical Cancer

85% of cervial cancer are "squamous cell carcinomas", as the pathologist classifies them. This is the area of the cervix that is visible to the physician's eye when he does a speculum examination and normally this is covered with cells called "squamous cells". At times the lining of the cervical canal, which has adenoid glands, grows a bit out of the canal onto the outside surface of the cervix.

When this tissue turns cancerous, the pathologist diagnoses "adenocarcinoma", which happens in about 12% of all cervical cancer cases. The remaining 3% of cervical cancer is diagnosed by the pathologist as "adenosquamous cell carcinoma".

As the name says, they are a mixture of both malignant adenocarcinoma and malignant squamous cell carcinoma. These cancers are what the pathologist calls "poorly differentiated carcinoma", meaning that they are fast growing tumors with a cancer survival rate that is very poor. To complicate the picture, there are three grading types of squamous cell carcinoma: a well-differentiated, a moderately differentiated and a poorly differentiated one . Each of them has a different grade of malignancy with the most mature cell type having the best longterm survival and the most immature (poorly differentiated) type having the worst survival.

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References:

1. Cancer: Principles &Practice of Oncology.4th edition. Edited by Vincent T. DeVita, Jr. et al. Lippincott, Philadelphia,PA, 1993. Chapter on gynecological tumors.
2. Cancer: Principles&Practice of Oncology. 5th edition, volume 1. Edited by Vincent T. DeVita, Jr. et al. Lippincott-Raven Publ., Philadelphia,PA, 1997. Chapter on gynecological tumors.

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