Serum CYFRA 21-1 in cervical cancer patients treated with radiation therapy.
BACKGROUND
A fragment of cytokeratin 19, referred to as CYFRA 21-1, is abundant in the serum of many patients with malignant tumors and is recognized as one of the established tumor markers, especially for non-small-cell lung cancer. In this study, the clinical usefulness of CYFRA 21-1 was investigated in cervical cancer patients treated with radiation therapy with reference to squamous-cell-carcinoma-related antigen (SCC-Ag), a common tumor marker of cervical squamous cell carcinoma.


METHODS
The serum levels of CYFRA 21-1 and SCC-Ag of 50 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix were measured before and after radiation therapy.


RESULTS
CYFRA 21-1 was positive in 52% of the patients. The incidence increased with the stage of the cancer, and post-treatment increases were a sign of disease progression. During radiation, serum levels of CYFRA 21-1 decreased significantly and reflected the radiation effect well. In addition, CYFRA 21-1 was negative in all patients without distant metastasis at the end of radiation therapy. Compared with SCC-Ag, patients were less often positive for CYFRA 21-1, but there was a statistically positive correlation between the two markers (correlation matrix=0.69).


CONCLUSIONS
CYFRA 21-1 can be used in monitoring the outcome of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. It may be particularly useful for patients without SCC-Ag.
Suzuki
Y
Y
Department of Radiation Medicine, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan.
Nakano
T
T
Ohno
T
T
Abe
A
A
Morita
S
S
Tsujii
H
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000097:blood*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053539:Keratin-19; D007633:Keratins; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D053539:Keratin-19; C102012:antigen CYFRA21.1; D007633:Keratins