Vimentin intermediate filament expression in uterine cervical carcinoma

The expression of vimentin intermediate filament has been examined in 62 cases of stage IB/IIA uterine cervical carcinoma as it has been demonstrated that some vimentin-positive epithelial neoplasms arising in the breast, stomach and kidney have an aggressive clinical behavior. No correlation was found between vimentin staining in cervical carcinomas and tumor differentiation, lymph node status or clinical outcome although vimentin-positive adenocarcinomas had a non-statistically significant tendency to lack metastases.
Despite being over-expressed in each of the three main tumor subtypes, it appears unlikely that vimentin analysis will prove to be useful as a prognostic indicator in uterine cervical carcinoma.