Eight cases of early
adenocarcinoma selected from 101
adenocarcinomas of the uterine cervix were studied to establish the criteria of early
adenocarcinoma. Lesions of these 8 cases were small in size. In 7 of 8 cases, these
tumors originated in the area of the squamocolumnar junction (SCJ).
Tumor cells consisted of two types of atypical columnar cells, i.e., tall columnar cells with enlarged and deeply eosinophilic cytoplasm and clear cells with enlarged and clear vacuoles. Tall columnar cells showed weak or negative reaction to high
iron diamine (HID)
stain and negative to
Alcian blue (AB)
stain. Clear cells showed negative reaction to HID
stain and positive to AB
stain. Although normal endocervical columnar cells showed markedly positive reaction to HID
stain and negative reaction to AB
stain, invasive
adenocarcinoma cells showed similar reaction to early
adenocarcinoma cells. From this study, it is surmised that early
adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix originates in the area of the SCJ and consists of tall cells in all cases and clear cells in 4 of 8 cases, and that
HID-AB stain is useful in differentiating early
adenocarcinoma cells from normal endocervical columnar cells.