Histopathologic grading and prognosis of uterine cervical carcinoma

In a retrospective study of 275 patients with invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix, a recently developed histopathologic malignancy system, MGS, was investigated for its prognostic value. The system is based on an evaluation of eight parameters: structure, cell type, nuclear polymorphism, mitoses, mode of invasion, stage of invasion, vascular invasion, and lymphoplasmocytic response. Each parameter is graded from 1 to 3 points, with total score variation ranging from 8 to 24 points. A Kaplan-Meyer plot showed that the crude survival of patients with an MGS index less than or equal to 14 was significantly better than the survival of patients with an MGS index greater than 14. There was no correlation between the clinical stage of the patients and the MGS score. This suggests that, in addition to clinical staging, the MGS index could be of considerable prognostic value and a help in the selection of high risk patients for more aggressive therapy.