Background: A fragment of cytokeratin 19, referred to as CYFRA 21-1, is abundant in the serum of many patients with malignant tumors and is recognized as one of the established tumor markers, especially for non-small-cell lung cancer. In this study, the clinical usefulness of CYFRA 21-1 was investigated in cervical cancer patients treated with radiation therapy with reference to squamous-cell-carcinoma-related antigen (SCC-Ag), a common tumor marker of cervical squamous cell carcinoma.
Materials and methods: The serum levels of CYFRA 21-1 and SCC-Ag of 50 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix were measured before and after radiation therapy.
Results: CYFRA 21-1 was positive in 52% of the patients. The incidence increased with the stage of the cancer, and post-treatment increases were a sign of disease progression. During radiation, serum levels of CYFRA 21-1 decreased significantly and reflected the radiation effect well. In addition, CYFRA 21-1 was negative in all patients without distant metastasis at the end of radiation therapy. Compared with SCC-Ag, patients were less often positive for CYFRA 21-1, but there was a statistically positive correlation between the two markers (correlation matrix=0.69).
Conclusions: CYFRA 21-1 can be used in monitoring the outcome of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. It may be particularly useful for patients without SCC-Ag.