Abstract
Cytological and histological examinations on 14 cases of early invasive epidermoid carcinoma of the uterine cervix were done and the cellular features suggestive of microinvasion were evaluated as compared with histologic findings. Most reliable cellular features of microinvasive carcinoma were the presence of syncytial arrangements of tumor cells and a mixture of malignant cells of keratinizing or intermediate type. They appeared to represent the marked proliferation of tumor cells of parabasal type and focal cellular differentiation at the sites of microinvasion respectively. Cellular detritus appeared in close association with advancing extent of stromal penetration and it seemed to be correlated with the central necrosis or severe leucocytic infiltrates in the tumor cell nests on the histologic basis. The cell pleomorphism and nuclear chromatin pattern of irregularly coarse granularity of tumor cells were subsidarily of importance for a correct diagnosis of microinvasive carcinoma.
