Multiparametric quantitation of the progression of uterine cervix preneoplasia towards neoplasia.

The aim of the research was to quantify the malignancy progression of preneoplastic lesions towards carcinoma of the uterine cervix. The study has shown that the modifications to nuclear area, perimeter, DNA content, percentage of nuclei with nucleoli, nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio and percentage of SOYA BEAN AGGLUTININ stained cells are progressively greater moving from normal epithelium and mild dysplasia towards infiltrating carcinoma. In particular all the morphologic and histochemical parameters have shown an increasing derangement which appears to parallel the diploid reduction and the appearance of aneuploidy. In order to identify the changes in the stroma, the modifications to the capillaries were investigated: in mild dysplasia only the vessel density increases; the capillary area, perimeter and diameter increase in moderate and severe dysplasia, and in CIS; the values of these features are similar in the carcinoma groups. The capillary density increases mainly in the invasive carcinoma. The data obtained in the study have shown that: 1) the process of malignancy progression is characterised by a gradual and continuous derangement of cell characteristics and modifications to capillaries of the stroma; 2) the mild dysplastic changes have the characteristics of hyperplastic lesions; 3) CIS, qualitatively similar to severe dysplasia from which it differs quantitatively, has features of neoplastic proliferation; 4) the appearance of invasion is associated with DNA parameter changes which may indicate a ploidy reduction.