Flow cytometric analysis of tumor antigen TA-4 in cervical squamous cells.

Flow cytometric (FCM) analysis of tumor antigen TA-4 was made on cervical cells from 24 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix and from 22 patients without cancer by using an indirect immunofluorescence staining technique. Cellular TA-4 content was much greater in cancer cells than in non-malignant cells. In all cases of squamous cell carcinoma, FCM histograms showed a broad but conspicuous peak with higher fluorescence intensity, whereas such a fluorescence pattern as seen in malignant cases was not detected in 21 non-malignant subjects whose cells had low levels of the antigen. It would be possible to identify and sort cancer cells on the basis of cellular TA-4 content. Therefore, FCM analysis of TA-4 may provide the basis of a prescreening method for cervical cancer detection.