Glassy-cell carcinoma of the cervix: case report with a light and electron microscopy study

A case of glassy-cell carcinoma of the cervix is reported. In the literature this tumor is regarded as an undifferentiated form of mixed carcinomas of the cervix. At the light microscopic level the tumor cells are characterized by a moderate amount of cytoplasm of ground-glass appearance that stains faintly blue with hematoxylin, a distinct cell wall that stains with eosin or with periodic acid-Schiff (PAS), and large vesiculated nuclei with prominent nucleoli. In the cytoplasm of very few tumor cells, a minute amount of Alcian blue-positive material is demonstrated. At the electron microscopic level the tumor cells show distinct cell borders with interdigitating cytoplasmic projections that contain many desmosomes. Cytoplasmic tonofilaments were demonstrated in few tumor cells. The nuclei show a euchromatic appearance with prominent mesh-basket nucleoli. The cytoplasm contains abundant ribosomes, polyribosomes, and round to oval mitochondria with transverse cristae. Some cells contain a prominent Golgi apparatus with many lysosomelike structures. A very few cells have small intracytoplasmic lumina with microvilli and annulate lamellae. The assumption that the glassy-cell carcinoma of the cervix represents a poorly differentiated adenosquamous carcinoma finds support from our ultrastructural study.