Comparison of the pattern of metastatic spread of squamous cell cancer and adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix.

Retrospective review of medical records and autopsy findings in patients dying of squamous cell cancer or adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix was undertaken to evaluate for possible differences in biologic behavior between these tumor types. Twenty-one patients with each tumor type were evaluated. Patients with adenocarcinoma were found to have a higher incidence of tumor involvement of the paraaortic lymph nodes (13/21 vs 6/20, P less than 0.05), uterine corpus (17/17 vs 12/20, P less than 0.05), and adrenal gland (7/21 vs 0/21, P less than 0.005). Presence of ascites (9/21 vs 2/21, P less than 0.05) and hydrothorax (9/21 vs 3/21, P less than 0.05) was also significantly more frequent in patients with adenocarcinoma. These findings suggest that this tumor may behave differently in regard to pattern of metastatic spread or response to therapy. The therapeutic implications of these findings deserve further study.