The correlation between the presence and absence of HLA
Class II antigen and stromal lymphocyte infiltration in
cervical cancer tissue was analyzed immunohistologically. The correlation was also studied in relation to the prognosis of patients with cervical
carcinoma. Immunohistological staining was performed with a
monoclonal antibody differentiating monomorphic determinants of
HLA-DR and an antibody (HU-30) differentiating HLA-DR1/2, one of the polymorphic determinants, in 36 patients with cervical
carcinoma. Infiltrating lymphocytes were identified immunohistologically with various
monoclonal antibodies, and the following results were obtained: 1) Twenty-six (72.2%) of the 36 patients were evaluated as positive for HLA-DR1/2 from the reaction with HU-30. 2)
Cancer cells from 21 (80.8%) of the 26 patients were
HLA-DR positive, while those from 5 (19.2%) were
HLA-DR negative. 3)
Cancer cells from 12 (46.2%: group A) of the 21 patients were also positive for HLA-DR1/2, while those from 9 (34.6%) were negative for the determinant. 4) There was no patient whose stromal lymphocytes were negative for HLA-DR1/2 and whose
cancer cells alone were positive for the determinant. Thus, there was a total of 14 patients (53.8%: group B) whose
cancer cells were negative for
HLA-DR. 5) The lymphocytes that infiltrated the area surrounding the
cancer lesion were mainly T cells, with Leu-3a cells (helper/inducer T cell) more abundant than Leu-2a cells (suppressor/cytotoxic T cell). 6) Infiltration of T cells, the subgroup and
IL-2-receptor-positive cells was greater in group A than in group B.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)