Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0677930 (primary tumor)
 20,210 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) is widely used as a serum marker in cancers of the uterine cervix, the head and neck, lung and esophagus. Two isoforms of SCCA, deriving from 2 highly homologous serine proteinase inhibitor genes, are co-expressed in normal and malignant squamous epithelium, but it is mainly the acidic isoform SCCA2 that is present in the circulation of cancer patients. We studied the relative levels of SCCA2 and SCCA1 mRNA in frozen sections of squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (SCCHN) in relation to disease recurrence, using a new reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction-based technique for accurate quantitation of relative mRNA levels. Primary tumors from 30 SCCHN patients, recurrent tumors from 11 patients and normal epithelium from 16 controls were examined. In patients responding to initial therapy (n = 26), an elevated SCCA2/SCCA1 mRNA ratio in the primary tumor predicted recurrence independent of clinical stage (p = 0.011). The relative risk of developing a recurrence was 7.2 (CI 1.2-13.3) in patients with elevated vs. normal SCCA2/SCCA1 mRNA ratios. We demonstrate that subtle differences in expression levels of the SCCA genes are reflected in the course of the SCCHN disease and may provide a target for molecular grading of SCCHN tumors. If this finding can be confirmed in a larger study the SCCA2/SCCA1 mRNA ratio in primary tumors could be useful for individual selection of treatment strategy for patients with head and neck cancer.
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PMID:Relative levels of SCCA2 and SCCA1 mRNA in primary tumors predicts recurrent disease in squamous cell cancer of the head and neck. 1124 9

Squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) has been used for the management of squamous cell carcinoma, especially in order to evaluate therapeutic effects and monitor recurrence. Recent studies have shown that SCCA performs several biological functions and can influence the behavior of cancer cells. It is well known that altered expression of E-cadherin is involved in the process of cancer invasion and metastasis. The present study was therefore undertaken to investigate the relationship between the expression of SCCA, E-cadherin and lymph node metastasis in advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients. We studied 70 patients who had undergone radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy for stage IB, IIA and IIB of the disease, without pretreatments. Immunohistochemistry, using monoclonal antibodies against SCCA2 and E-cadherin, was performed to examine the relationship between SCCA2 and E-cadherin expression patterns in primary cancer lesions and lymph node metastasis. There was a significant positive relationship between the two expression patterns in primary cancer lesions (p<0.01). Both exhibited a heterogeneous expression pattern in the primary tumor which indicated a significant relationship with lymph node metastasis (p<0.01). Our data clearly show that SCCA2 expression is significantly related to E-cadherin expression and that the heterogeneous pattern of SCCA and E-cadherin in primary lesions is strongly associated with the high incidence of lymph node metastasis in cervical squamous cell carcinoma. These findings suggest that SCCA2 may be involved in cancer behavior such as metastasis, and as such can be a useful marker in predicting lymph node metastasis.
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PMID:Relationship between decreased expression of squamous cell carcinoma antigen 2 and E-cadherin in primary cervical cancer lesions and lymph node metastasis. 1809 81