Work

In situ phenotypic and karyotypic co-detection of aneuploid TCs and TECs in cytological specimens with abnormal cervical screening results

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Background Detection of chromosome aneuploidy is an important method for cervical cancer screening, however, the study of chromosome ploidy in primary cervical tumor cells is limited. A novel immunostaining integrated with fluorescence in situ hybridization (iFISH) strategy phenotypically and karyotypically co-detected the expression of tumor markers and chromosome aneuploidy to investigate the diagnostic values of aneuploid tumor cells (TCs) and tumor endothelial cells (TECs) in all-stage cervical lesion smear specimens. Methods A total of 196 patients were enrolled in this study. Immunofluorescence staining of p16 and Ki67 combined with FISH was applied to quantitatively co-detect and characterize aneuploid CD31− TCs and CD31+ TECs as well as their subtypes in cervical cytological specimens. The diagnostic values of aneuploid TCs and TECs for high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL+) were investigated by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results The number of total aneuploid CD31− TCs and their p16/Ki67+ subtypes increased markedly with the severity of cervical lesions, although a similar was not observed on aneuploid CD31+ TECs. To identify HSIL+, the area under the curve (AUC) of tetraploid TCs was the largest (0.739), followed by multiploidy (≥ pentaploid) TCs (0.724) and triploid TCs (0.699). Regarding combined subtypes, the AUC of ≥ tetraploid TCs was 0.745, and their unique diagnosis values were clinically reflected in the vitally high specificity. Conclusion The number of CD31− TCs was associated with the severity of cervical lesions and aneuploid CD31− TCs exhibited a remarkable diagnostic specificity for HSIL+. Further studies are required to broaden their other potential clinical utility.

Source: BMC Cancer

DOI: 10.1186/s12885-025-14346-y