No abstract

The serum--SCC antigen levels of patients with head and neck tumors were studied prospectively to determine their value in the initial diagnosis of head- and neck-cancer patients. Serum concentrations above 2 ng/ml are considered abnormal. Preliminary results of the study after a 12-month period have been reported elsewhere (1). The final results of the study show an increased percentage (53%) of pathologic findings, mostly due to the increasing number of advanced stage tumors. High serum levels were found in 60% of the T4-tumors (Fig. 4a). Well differentiated carcinomas seem to be associated with the antigen more frequently than poorly differentiated tumors (Fig. 5). SCC antigen levels were examined as many as five times before the start of treatment (85 patients), and in one-third of those cases the differences between the serum levels exceeded 1 ng/ml. As far as 85% specificity is concerned, the ROC-curve shows a sensitivity of only 40% (Fig. 2) which, in addition to the fact that the antigen was most frequently found in cases of advanced tumors, indicates that the usefulness of the SCC antigen as a tumor marker for head and neck cancer must still be regarded as low.

The serum levels of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) associated antigen are related to the course of the therapy in 91 cases of advanced head and neck cancers. Without statistical significance the findings may lead to the following statements: 1. Serum levels below 2 ng/ml before treatment are not related to tumour growth. 2. Serum levels above 2 ng/ml before treatment are likely to be regarded as tumour-associated. 3. High and low level curves of not operated patients show a quantitatively different reaction to the course of a combined simultaneous radiochemotherapy. 4. Initially increasing serum levels under combined therapy may be interpreted as related to cell death or result of a production or proliferation stimulus. 5. High serum levels and low serum levels in tumour patients might be regarded as an expression of different biological activities in the tumour. 6. The comparison of the survival rates of high level tumours to low level tumours raises the question as to whether this different biological activity might be related to clinical malignancy.

No abstract

For studies on cochlear function after inner ear trauma, cryosurgery gives reproductive morphological changes that may help the understanding and the correlation of hair cell loss with cochlear physiology. In all cases of partial destruction of the organ of Corti we noticed a completely reversible limitation of hearing, whereas when injuring the organ of Corti in the whole cochlea a restriction of function persisted. We could never induce complete deafness.