Local immune response in squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix

The role of Langerhans cells as antigen-presenting cells was examined in cervical carcinomas. Frozen samples were obtained from 34 women with stage Ib and II cervical carcinomas. Langerhans cells (CD1), T lymphocytes (CD4 and CD8), B lymphocytes (CD22), and natural killer (CD57, NK) cells were all quantitatively assessed in cervical carcinomas using immunohistochemical methods. These results were related to the MHC class I and II expression on the tumor cells. The majority of Langerhans cells were distributed among cancer cells and they were positively correlated with CD4+, NK and B cells in cervical carcinomas. This is suggestive of the presence of local immune response. The numbers of Langerhans, CD4+, CD8+ and NK cells did not significantly correlate with age at operation, lymph node metastases or depth of cervical wall invasion. The downregulation of MHC class I expression found in 8 (24%) carcinomas was not associated with the decrease in the number of immunologic cells. The upregulation of MHC class II expression found in 26 (76%) carcinomas was significantly associated with the increase in the number of Langerhans cells (p < 0.007). However, the association between the upregulation of MHC-II expression and CD4+ cells did not reach statistical significance (p < 0.07). This is probably due to a small case in this study. MHC-II-restricted immunity may partly contribute to the local immune response in stages Ib and II squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix.