CYFRA-21-1 IS NOT SUPERIOR TO SCC ANTIGEN AND CEA IN HEAD AND NECK SQUAMOUS-CELL CANCER

CYFRA 21-1 was compared to the most reliable tumor markers for squamou s cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC), SCC antigen and CEA. Se ra of 163 patients with primary and 40 patients with recurrent HNSCC w ere examined 94 patients with non-malignant ENT-diseases sewed as the control group. To give a specificity of 95% the cut-off-values were as follows: SCC: 1.9 ng/ml, CEA: 3.8 ng/ml, CYFRA 21-1: 2.9 ng/ml. SCC h ad the highest sensitivity at the time of primary diagnosis (P) at 43% and 61% at relapse (R), compared to CEA with P: 35%, R: 40% and CYFRA 21-1 with P: 17%, R: 18%. We show that CYFRA 21-1 cannot offer additi onal information to the clinical outcome of patients with HNSCC, where as combined analysis of SCC and CEA leads to a markedly increased sens itivity of 60% at primaly diagnosis and of 79% in cases of tumor relap se.