Apoptosis in cervical squamous carcinoma: predictive value for survival following radiotherapy

Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, can be induced by radiotherapy. The extent of apoptosis in a tumour before treatment may have important implications for response to radiotherapy and long term survival.

To examine the extent of apoptosis in tumour tissue from patients with squamous carcinoma of the cervix before radiotherapy, and to correlate this with response to treatment and prognosis.

The percentage of apoptotic cells was assessed in 146 carcinomas of the cervix from patients scheduled to receive radiotherapy. The CAS 200 static image analysis system was used to count the number of tumour nuclei per high power field, while the numbers of apoptotic cells in the same field were visualised simultaneously on the image analyser and recorded manually.

The median apoptotic level was 0.73%. Patients were divided into two groups around the median. There was no statistically significant difference in outcome between the two groups as determined by long term survival following radiotherapy.

The CAS 200 static image analyser system can be used to assist in the rapid semiautomated assessment of apoptosis in conventionally prepared tissue. The results suggest that the apoptotic state of a tumour before treatment is of no value in predicting response to radiotherapy and subsequent prognosis. Tumour stage, size, and BrdU labelling index, as a measure of proliferation rate, remain the most important prognostic factors in terms of predicting local tumour control.