The Correlation Between the Serum Squamous Carcinoma Antigen and the Prognosis of Recurrent Cervical Squamous Carcinoma.

Background: To explore the relationship of the serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) with the pathologic characteristics, occurrence, and prognosis of cervical squamous carcinoma. Methods: The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method was used to determine the serum SCC-Ag levels for the patients, which included 424 pretreatment patients and 500 cases after treatment. Results: (a) Pretreatment SCC-Ag levels of patients were related to clinical stages, lymphatic metastasis, and myometrial invasion, (b) within a median follow-up of 54 months, 180 recurrences (36%) and 102 disease-associated deaths (20.4%) were recorded, 161 recurrent patients showed elevated SCC-Ag levels (161/180, 89.4%), and 60 of them (37.3%) had a significant increase in SCC-Ag serum levels before clinical manifestation of relapse. The lead time ranged between 1 and 5 months (median: 2.3 months). The total survival rates were 23.4% and 17.8% for 3-year and 5-year period, respectively, and (c) clinical stages, the site of recurrence, and SCC-Ag levels after treatment were closely related with recurrent patients' survival time (P < 0.01 similar to<0.005). Multivariate analysis indicated that the clinical stages and SCC-Ag levels of recurrent patients were independent prognostic factors (P < 0.05 similar to 0.01). Conclusion: Serum SCC-Ag level was an important predictor for the cervical squamous carcinoma recurrence and prognosis. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.