The lymphocyte-epithelial cell ratio in tubal mucosa of patients with cervical carcinoma

Abstract

The lymphocytes in the luminal subepithelial basement membrane of the uterine tube from patients with cervical carcinoma were counted, and the results compared with those obtained from women of the same age but without cervical carcinoma (cf. Geppert et al. 1977) to determine whether a relationship exists between emigration of lymphocytes into the tubal epithelium and the clinical diagnosis of cervical carcinoma. The comparison indicated that the number of lymphocytes emigrating into the tubal epithelium during the secretory and the proliferative phase in women with cervical carcinoma is significantly lower than that in healthy women from the control group. The differences during the secretory phase were particularly pronounced. The lymphocyte count in patients with cervical carcinoma was only one third that of the healthy women in the control group. Assuming that an immunologic defect is determinative for the development of carcinoma, a decline in the number of lymphocytes emigrating into the tubal epithelium can be interpreted as the reflexion of an immunologic deficiency. It is possible that a disturbance in the lymphocytes epithelial cell ratio in this stage of life could indicate a disposition for those tumors the incidence of which is high in this age group (e.g., squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix). Further study is necessary to establish whether these cells be classified as B or T lymphocytes.