To investigate the relationship between apoptosis and histologic types in invasive squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix. The present study involved the assessment of surgical specimens from 74 women with cervical carcinomas FIGO stage IB1 (54 squamous cell carcinomas and 20 adenocarcinomas). The study samples were obtained from selected paraffin blocks containing specimens from patients submitted to surgical procedures. The respective medical charts of patients were reviewed and epidemiologic, clinical and disease-related data were collected. Cervical specimens were assessed by the immunohistochemistry technique using the Bcl-2 protein as a marker. The reactions were considered positive when the cells became stained in brown color. Bcl-2 positive cells were counted in 10 fields under a high magnification (400x) using light microscopy, in the slides area containing squamous carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the cervix. The total cell count was expressed as the number of positive Bcl-2 cells per mm(2). No significant difference in the number of cells marked by the Bcl-2 protein was found for the variables age, tumor diameter, angiolymphatic invasion or number of lymph nodes affected. Comparison of the number of cells marked by the Bcl-2 protein in the two histological groups revealed a statistically significant difference, with squamous tumors presenting a greater number of marked cells. Squamous cervical tumors present a greater number of positive Bcl-2 cells per mm(2), suggesting that that the rate of cell death in squamous cell carcinomas of the cervix is lower than in adenocarcinomas.