This study was conducted to determine a potential use of CYFRA 21-1 in pati
ents suffering from carcinoma of the esophagus. CYFRA 21-1 serum concentrat
ions of 50 patients with histologically proven malignant lesion of the esop
hagus were compared with 50 healthy persons, 50 patients with benign esopha
geal disease, and 50 patients with benign Lung disease, Additional analysis
of serum carcinoembryonic antigen, CA 72-4, and squamous cell carcinoma-an
tigen serum concentrations were performed. The patients with esophageal car
cinoma underwent follow-up tumor marker examinations every three months for
1 gear, Analysis to detect statistically significant differences was condu
cted to estimate a cutoff and to evaluate tumor entity, tumor stage, surviv
al, and tumor-free survival.
CYFRA 21-1 at a cutoff of 1.40 ng/ml showed an overall sensitivity to esoph
ageal carcinoma of 36% (45.5% to squamous cell carcinoma, 17.6% to adenocar
cinoma) at a specificity of 97.3%, CYFRA 21-1 concentrations showed a tende
ncy to higher serum levels depending on local tumor burden. A correlation o
f CYFRA 21-1 with various N- or M-stage disease was not observed. Postopera
tive development in terms of survival and tumor-free survival showed signif
icant correlation to preoperative CYFRA 21-1 concentrations. Clinical tumor
recurrence was preceded by CYFRA 21-1 elevation by 3.4 months, For prognos
is and followup, this marker is justified for additional analysis in a larg
er series of patients suffering from carcinoma of the esophagus.