Stromal metachromasia: a marker for areas of infiltrating tumour growth?

Abstract

The presence of stromal metachromasia is reported in 23 of 38 cases of invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix, its absence from 34 of 35 'in-situ' lesions. The metachromasia was seen at the zone of host/tumour interaction. Its presence was associated with changes in the morphology of the stromal cells and adjacent mast cells. The implications of these observations to the interpretation of tumour histology are discussed.