Serum soluble interleukin-2 receptor concentrations as an independent prognostic marker in head and neck cancer

Currently head and neck squamous cell-carcinomas are staged clinically, tho ugh this is not ideal. We did a multivariate prospective study of 234 patie nts with head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma and showed that high serum c oncentrations of sIL-2R alpha at diagnosis were highly correlated with a sh orter survival (p<0.0001). In addition, patients who had low serum sIL-2R<a lpha> concentrations at diagnosis were less likely to develop distant metas tasis during the 36 months follow up compared with the group with high seru m sIL-2R alpha concentrations (p<0.001). These findings suggest that serum sIL-2R<alpha> could be considered as an independent serum biomarker in head and neck cancer patients.