The squamous cell carcinoma antigen, SCC antigen, is a subfraction of TA-4 tumor antigen which is purified from squamous cell carcinoma tissue of the uterine cervix. Recently, it has been found to be elevated in patients with squamous cell carcinoma. In this study, SCC antigen levels in sera from 43 patients with invasive cervical carcinoma, 10 healthy women, and 10 patients with various benign gynecologic tumors were determined by radioimmunoassay.
The results were summarized as follows:
1) The mean value and positive rate of SCC antigen were higher in invasive cervical cancer (4.6 ng/ ml and 58.1%. respectively) compared with control (1.0 ng/ml and 0/a, respectively) and benign gynecologic diseases (1.7 ng/ml and 30.0%, respectively).
2) Mean value of serum SCC antigen before treatment was 2.8 ng/ml in stage Ⅰ, 4.8 ng/ml in stage Ⅱ, and 10.8 in stage 3Ⅲ or IV, and 2.6 in recurrent cervical carcinoma, respectively. There was an increasing serum SCC antigen value with advancing stage, however, there were no significant differences in the mean values of seum SCC antigen according to stage.
3) Serum Scc antigen values above 2.0 ng/ml were observed in 35.7% of patients with stage Ⅰ, 73.7 % with stage Ⅱ, 60.0% with stage Ⅲ or IV, and 60% with recurrent disease, respectively. According to stage of cervical cancer, the positive rate of SCC antigen in stage Ⅱ or more was higher than stage Ⅰ.
4) Mean value of serum SCC antigen level was more elevated in patients with squamous cell carcinoma(5.3 ng/ml) than in patients with endocervical adenocarcinoma (1.3 ng/ml). However, this difference was not statistically significant.
5) SCC antigen values were serially determined in eight cases of invasive cervical carcinoma. In patients with cervical cancer who showed an elevated pretreatment value, the serial determination of SCC antigen correlated well with the clinical course.
It would be suggested that serial serum SCC antigen measurements, especially in the cases with high pretreatment antigen levels of the antigen, may be helpful in the early detection of persistent or recurrent cervical cancer and in determining therapeutic response after treatment.
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