[Free stromal cells in dysplasias and cancer of the cervix uteri].

The content and distribution of lymphocytes and plasma cells in stroma was studied in 452 cases of different diseases of the cervix. As dysplastic changes of the epithelium advanced up to the microinvasive form of cancer, the number of lymphocytes was found to increase progressively and blast forms appeared. In intraepithelial cancer, infiltration of the stroma with lymphocytes and plasma cells was poor, whereas in deep invasive cancer no lymphocytic and plasma cell infiltration was observed. The changes in the content and distribution of the immunocompetent cells of the stroma in different structural and functional alterations of the epithelium indicates the active part of the mechanisms of local immunological defence in combined changes of the epithelium and connective tissue.