Antinuclear antibodies in patients with cervical lesions and invasive cervical cancer

Background: Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) have been found in several types of cancer although the meaning of its presence is not completely known. Aim: To study the prevalence of ANA in patients with cervical intraepithelial lesion and invasive cervical cancer. Methods: A total of 205 women who underwent screening for cervical cancer or treatment at the Erasto Gaertner Cancer Hospital in Curitiba- Brazil, were enrolled in the study. Based on their latest cervical colposcopy-guided biopsy results, they were divided into four groups: CIN-I: 19.4%; CIN-II: 24.0%; CIN-III: 24.0%; and invasive cancer: 32.4%. As control were studied 68 healthy controls. ANA was searched by immunofluorescence in Hep-2 cells evaluating the pattern and titer. Results: Controls had 4/68 (5.8%) of ANA positivity and patients with CIN and invasive cancer had 15.1% (p = 0.001). Patients with CIN-I and CIN-II had the same prevalence of ANA as controls (p = 1.0 and p = 0.11 respectively), but not those with CIN-III (p = 0.03) and invasive cancer (p = 0.05). The most common ANA immunofluorescence pattern was fine speckled pattern (38.7%) and fine dense speckled pattern (38.7%); the mean titer was 1:160. Conclusion: ANA is more common in invasive cervical lesions than in controls or non invasive lesions. To understand the meaning of this finding more studies are needed.