Placental-type alkaline phosphatase in cervical neoplasia.

Monoclonal antibodies reactive with placental-type alkaline phosphatase have formed the basis of methods for detection of this oncodevelopmental antigen in patients with pre-invasive and invasive cervical neoplasia, with or without evidence of papilloma virus infection. Disease-related elevations of placental-type alkaline phosphatase were not observed in patients' sera. Solubilised cervical smears or biopsy material, and cervical mucus swabs, often contained substantial amounts of this isoenzyme; however, there was no significant difference between any of the patient and control groups. Thus, serological and smear test assays for placental-type alkaline phosphatase were not useful in differential diagnosis of cervical lesions. However, its presence in most biopsy specimens, often at high levels, indicated possible application for in vivo radioimmunoimaging studies of invasive or metastatic cervical cancer.