Biological‐clinical significance of selective loss of HLA‐class‐I allelic product expression in squamous‐cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix

Abstract

To determine possible correlations between the selective loss of HLA‐class‐l allelic forms on neoplastic cells and their biological‐clinical characteristics, 89 squamous‐cell carcinomas of the uterine cervix were evaluated immunohistochemically using monomorphic and polymorphic antibodies against HLA‐A, ‐B, and ‐C molecules and analyzed clinico‐pathologically. Four of the carcinomas exhibited a lack of detectable class‐l heavy‐chain expression associated with β₂‐microglobulin. In 19 of 42 HLA‐A2‐positive patients, tumor cells revealed loss of the HLA‐A2 allelic product. Loss of HLA‐B7 and/or 40 (B7/40) allelic product(s) on tumor cells was observed in 12 of 2S HLA‐B7/40‐positive cases. These alterations did not correlate with patient age, clinical stage (FIGO) of the disease, histological sub‐type (WHO) or depth of cervical invasion. However, a statistically significant correlation was observed between lymph‐node metastases and selective loss of HLA‐B7/40 allelic produces), but not with HLA‐A2 allelic product on cancer cells of the primary lesion. Our results indicate that selective loss of certain HLA‐class‐l alleles on neoplastic cells can influence the nodal metastatic potential and suggest that these 2 class‐l molecules may have different immune functions as restriction elements in T‐cell‐mediated cytotoxicity.