Circumscribed carcinoma of the uterine cervix, with marked lymphocytic infiltration.

Abstract

The present study was carried out to investigate a distinctive type of carcinoma of the uterine cervix categorized under the designation as circumscribed carcinoma with lymphocytic infiltration. Grossly this carcinoma is characterized by defined circumscription with a superficial ulceration. A microscropic feature characteristic of this tumor is the presence of a loose fibrillary stroma infiltrated densely and uniformly by lymphocytes throughout the tumor mass. The tumor is arranged in solid cords separated by a lymphoid stroma with evidence of minimal squamous differentiation. The authors picked up 709 patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix who underwent radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy at the Cancer Institute Hospital, Tokyo, between 1956-1967, without preoperative radio- or chemotherapy. Among them, 39 or 5.5% were identified as this type of carcinoma. Patients with this types of carcinoma had a significantly better prognosis than those with other types of cervical carcinoma of the same stage (p less than 0.05). This favorable prognosis is probably due to the less regional node metastases found in the group. A proposal was made to segregate this particular type of carcinoma from other types of cervical carcinoma on the basis of its morphologic and prognostic distinctiveness.