[Immunohistochemical study of carcinoembryonic antigen of the tissue and cell levels in adenocarcinoma of the uterus].

Unlabelled: Immunohistochemical staining was performed for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in tissues taken from 41 cases of cervical and 67 cases of endometrial adenocarcinomas. Utilizing this method, smear specimens from 21 cases with cervical and 25 cases with endometrial adenocarcinomas were investigated at the cell level.
The Results: 1) The investigation at the tissue level indicated that CEA staining was positive in 80% of cases of cervical adenocarcinoma. On the other hand, the positive rate was as low as 55% of the endometrial adenocarcinoma cases. It further declined to 35% when limited to pure adenocarcinoma without squamous elements. In addition, a difference was recognized between the cervical and endometrial groups in their localization. It was apparent that while even the cytoplasm in most of the cervical adenocarcinoma appeared to be markedly stained, such a tendency was observed and was weak in only a part of the cell membrane in the endometrial adenocarcinoma cases. 2) The studies with smear specimens indicated that while 57% (13/21) of the cervical adenocarcinoma cases were CEA positive, only 12% (3/25) were positive in endometrial adenocarcinoma cases. Therefore, a difference was recognized between the two at the cell level in their CEA staining characteristics. 3) Our observation revealed that CEA was more prominent in the poorly differentiated type than in the well differentiated one, in both cervical and endometrial adenocarcinoma. This seems to indicate a relationship between the histological differentiation and production of CEA. On the basis of the above findings, it was inferred that although both cervical and endometrial adenocarcinoma occur in the common Müllerian duct organ, they might have different biological characteristics.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)