Abstract: Objective To explore the distribution of circulating tumor cell(CTC) subtypes and circulating tumor microemboli(CTM) in peripheral blood of patients with cervical cancer(CC), and to analyze the correlation between CTC/CTM and the expression levels of tumor markers SCC-Ag, CA125 and CA199. 
Methods The elbow venous blood was collected from 32 patients with initially diagnosed CC,the subtraction enrichment-immunofluorescence staining-fluorescence in situ hybridization(SE-iFISH) was employed to detect CTC/CTM, and the electro-chemiluminescence immunoassay was used to measure the serum levels of SCC-Ag, CA125 and CA199. The correlation between CTC/CTM and pathological features and serum tumor markers was analyzed. 
Results Among 32 cases within itially diagnosed CC, 29 cases were positive for CTC(positive rate of 90.6%), and 9 cases were positive for CTM(positive rate of 28.1%). There was a significant difference in the positive rate of CTC in CC patients with different lymph node metastasis(P＜0.05). There was a significant difference in the positive rate of CTM among CC patients with different clinical stages and lymph node metastasis(P＜0.05). In addition, 28 cases were positive for CA125(positive rate of 87.5%), 28 cases were positive for CA199(positive rate of 87.5%), and 24 cases were positive for SCC-Ag(positive rate of 75.0%). There was no correlation of CTC and CTM with the serum levels of CA125, CA199 and SCC-Ag(P＞0.05). 
Conclusion CTC/CTM monitoring can be used as an important indicator of the progression of CC.

Key words: uterine cervical neoplasms, neoplastic cells, circulating, circulating tumor microemboli