Survivin is a novel inhibitor of apoptosis. Suppression of apoptosis is important for carcinogenesis and tumor growth. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether survivin is expressed in the tissues of normal uterine cervix, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade III (CIN III) and squamous cell carsinoma of the uterine cervix, as a first step for evaluation of the clinical significance of survivin in uterine cervical cancer.

We investigated the expression of survivin in the tissues of 11 cases of normal uterine cervix and 14 cases of CIN III and 20 cases of uterine cervical cancer, using Immunohistochemistry at department of obstetrics and gynecology of Ajou university hospital from Jan. 2000 to Jan. 2001 and then compared with the results of three groups.

The expression of survivin is increased significantly in cases of CIN III and uterine cervical cancer compared with controls. (p<0.05, One way ANOVA test)

This study shows survivin could play an important role in the carcinogenesis mechanism of uterine cervix. And further study will be followed to evaluate the clinical relationship of survivin in uterine cervical cancer and whether to act a prognostic factor or not.