Squamous‐cell carcinoma antigen (SCC‐A) values related to clinical outcome of pre‐invasive and invasive cervical carcinoma

Abstract

The serum concentration of squamous-cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-A), a subfraction of tumour antigen, was determined by RIA from healthy donors (control group) and from patients with malignant cervical disease. Ninety-six percent (173/180) of the healthy patients had squamous-cell carcinoma antigen serum levels below 2 ng/ml. Ten of 70 (14.3%) patients with CIN III, 53.8% (34/62) of patients with invasive squamous-cell carcinoma stage I, 85.8% (30/35) with stage II and 96.5% (27/28) with stage III/IV had squamous-cell carcinoma antigen serum levels above 2 ng/ml. We observed that 22.5% (11/49) of patients with a tumour volume below 10 ml and 92.6% of patients with a tumour volume greater than 10 ml had squamous-cell carcinoma antigen levels above 2 ng/ml (p less than 0.005). SCC-A was correlated with recurrence or progressive disease in 90.0% of cases. Other risk factors such as depth of invasion, microscopic parametrial involvement, lymphatic and/or vascular space permeation and histological grade were not correlated with squamous-cell carcinoma antigen. Furthermore, this marker increased 4.3 +/- 2.7 months before clinical evidence of recurrence or progressive disease. We conclude that serial serum levels of squamous-cell carcinoma antigen provide a means for early detection of recurrence or progressive disease. This tumour marker might also be useful for monitoring the treatment effects and has some prognostic value.

Serum concentrations of squamous cell carcinoma antigen in patients with vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia and vulvar cancer

“…We thus assume that SCC-Ag production and secretion into body fluids, while obviously not involved in the pathogenesis of VIN, is an early event in vulvar carcinogenesis. These data are in accordance with previously reported ones in cervical cancer and indicate that a malignant invasive phenotype of vulvar cancer, but not premalignant vulvar lesions, cause elevated serum concentrations of SCC-Ag (Brioschi et al, 1991). Although is little practical value for a differentiation marker of VIN vs. invasive vulvar cancer, our findings demonstrate that SCC-Ag overexpression might play a functional role in the natural history of vulvar cancer.…”

“…In cervical cancer, some authors have shown that serum concentrations of SCC-Ag may significantly correlate with tumour stage, deep stromal invasion, and lymph node involvement (Scambia et al, 1996;Duk et al, 1996). However, others have not found any significant association between serum concentrations of SCC-Ag and tumour stage, depth of invasion, histological grade and lymph node involvement (Gocze et al, 1994;Brioschi et al, 1991). In vulvar cancer, Yamawaki et al (1996) reported a significant correlation between pretreatment serum concentrations of SCC-Ag, and tumour stage and lymph node involvement, respectively.…”

National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory Medicine Practice Guidelines for Use of Tumor Markers in Liver, Bladder, Cervical, and Gastric Cancers

“…Serum SCC concentration has a sensitivity between 56% and 86% and specificity between 83% and 100% for detecting recurrent squamous cell cervical cancer (386,388,392,396,398,401,407,409,412 ). With the use of SCC, a lead time of up to 14 months for detecting recurrent disease has been reported, with a mean or median between 2 and 6 months (386, 388, 396 -398, 400, 401, 403, 405, 407 ).…”

Squamous cell carcinoma antigen suppresses radiation-induced cell death

“…The serum level of SCCA is increased in parallel to the growth of the tumour size or the recurrence of the disease. Therefore, measurement of the serum level of SCCA has been used clinically for the diagnosis and the management of SCC of the uterine cervix as well as other various organs (Kato et al, 1982(Kato et al, , 1983Maruo et al, 1985;Mino et al, 1988;Brioschi et al, 1991).…”