Original Article This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Published by Pacifc Group of e-Journals (PaGe) Signifcance of Mucin Stains in The Diagnosis of Carcinoma of Cervix Introduction Carcinoma cervix ranks the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, and the seventh overall and its incidence varies with continents with greater percentage of the global onus found in the less developed regions, as the sensitivity of the screening tests in several low resource countries is rather poor so cervical carcinoma still continues to be the leading cause of cancer in females in developing countries and by the time the cases are detected, they tend to be at later stages of the disease. [1, 2] . Multifactorial causation, potential for prevention, and the sheer threat it poses make cervical cancer an important disease for in-depth studies, as has been attempted by this study. Squamous cell carcinomas comprise the majority of the cancers of the cervix accounting for 80% of all cervical cancers followed by adenocarcinoma which constitutes about 10-20% of cervical cancer cases. Adenosquamous and neuroendocrine carcinomas are rare cervical tumors. Routine application of stains for mucin, preferably PAS and Combined alcian blue/PAS has shown that by classifying of carcinomas of cervix in H & E stained section alone, many mucin secreting neoplasms escape the detection unless mucin stain is applied and shown that 20 to 30 % of the cervical tumours regarded as being squamous cell carcinomas have to be reclassifed either as poorly diferentiated adenocarcinomas or as mixed adenocarcinomas. This reclassifcation is important and signifcance of identifying mixed tumours lies in the fact that these neoplasms run an unusually aggressive course and is associated with a much worse prognosis than their pure squamous and adeno- counterparts. [3] The primary objective of our study is to fnd out prevalence of mucin secretion in cervical carcinoma diagnosed on the basis of Hematoxylin &Eosin, (H&E) staining by application of mucin stains. Materials and Methods The present study was conducted from June 2015 to May 2016 in the Department of Pathology at Assam Medical Linda Lamngaiching Changsan 1 *, Pranita Medhi 2 and Utpal Dutta 1 1 Department of Pathology, Assam Medical College and Hospital, Dibrugarh, Assam (India) 2 Department of Pathology, Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, Jorhat, Assam (India) ABSTRACT Background: As many as 25-35% of carcinoma cervix without clearly defned glandular structure on histopathological examination by Hematoxylin and Eosin stains have intracellular mucin demonstrable by using mucin stains which may redefne the classifcation of cervical carcinomas which becomes important as mucus secreting neoplasms resembling pure squamous cell carcinomas are more aggressive and have worse prognosis than their purely squamous counterparts. Methods: Our study conducted at Assam Medical College Dibrugarh for a period of one year. 54 cases of carcinoma cervix diagnosed on Hematoxylin and Eosin stain were subjected to mucin stains i.e. Periodic acid Schif and Alcian blue at pH 2.5 and the results were compared with each other. Result: Out of the total 54 cases, 47 cases were squamous cell carcinoma (SCC, 87.03%) which were further graded as well diferentiated type (12/47) SCC, moderately diferentiated (31/47) SCC, poorly diferentiated (4/47) SCC and only 3 cases were adenosquamous carcinoma (3/54; 5.5%) and adenocarcinoma ( 4/54; 7.41%) by conventional H& E stain. On subjecting to specifc mucin stains, however 21.2% (10 cases) of the SCC (47 cases) contained intracellular mucin with varying percentage, along with adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous carcinomas. Revised diagnosis after application of mucins stains showed pure squamous cell carcinomas (37/54) i.e. 68.51%, adenocarcinomas remained same at 7.41% (4/54) and adenosquamous carcinoma increased (13/54) to 24.07%. Conclusion: Identifying adenosquamous carcinomas after application of mucin stains which were not detectable by H&E stained sections has sparked academic interest because of its prognostic signifcance as it has been found in various studies that adenosquamous carcinomas often pursue an aggressive course and are associated with worse prognosis than their pure adeno- and squamous – counterparts as most of them are poorly diferentiated. So recognition of this type of carcinomas can help to predict prognosis and to plan management. Keywords: Carcinoma Cervix, Mucin, PAS & Alcian Blue DOI: 10.21276/APALM.1583