Prognostic significance of pretreatment squamous cell carcinoma antigen and carcinoembryonic antigen in squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix

Abstract

Sixty-seven patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix (FIGO Stages IB2, IIA, and IIB) were reviewed to evaluate the pretreatment level of squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) which may be used to predict a subset of patients with poor prognosis. The rate of pathologic pretreatment serum level of SCC increased significantly in cases with Stage IIB compared to that of Stages IB2 and IIA (50% versus 16.3%). The rate of pathologic pretreatment serum level of CEA did not show any difference between these two groups (29.2% versus 30.2%). The 48-month disease-free survival for patients with pathologic pretreatment serum levels for one or both tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) was 40.0% versus 91.7% for patients with normal levels (log-rank test, P < 0.005) in Stages IB2 and IIA. Patients who had a pathologic pretreatment serum level for one or both TAAs showed higher incidence of lymph node metastasis than patients with normal levels (36.7% versus 10.8%). The patients who had pathologic pretreatment serum levels for both TAAs and lymph node metastasis have the poorest prognosis. The pretreatment serum levels for one or both TAAs make it possible to predict the clinical response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy consisting of cis-platinum (DDP) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Our findings suggest that pretreatment of SCC in conjunction with CEA is a valuable tumor marker to predict the prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix and to foresee a clinical response to subsequent neoadjuvant chemotherapy.