1074 Evaluation of pre- and post-treatment serum levels of CYFRA 21–1 in lung cancer (LC) patients (PTS)

Abstract

Serum levels of CYFRA 21–1 were measured before and after treatment for 116 LC pts followed in our center from March 1993 until September 1994. Tumor histology was the following: small cell (SC): 27, squamous cell: 35, adenocarcinoma: 33, large cell: 3, other non small cell (NSC): 18. As expected, the CYFRA 21–1 levels were elevated only in NSCLC pts (<i>P</i>=0.01 by Mann-Whitney test) and we will report only on the 89 pts with a NSC tumor. At diagnosis, the median level was 4.0ng/ml with a mean of 11.7ng/ml (standard deviation: 17.8ng/ml). Observed levels were higher in the subgroup of squamous cell tumors but we were not able to demonstrate a statistically significant difference. According to data obtained on normal subjects, we considered as elevated a level higher than 3.3ng/ml. Rates of elevated values were not statistically different among histology subgroups and among disease stage subgroups (limited versus disseminated disease). Forty pts had also a blood sample taken at the time of response to chemotherapy evaluation (11 partial responses, 11 stable diseases and 18 progressions). We looked at the differences of the 2 dosages and we showed statistically significant different distributions among responders, pts with stable disease and pts in progression with respective mean decreases of −5.6 and ⁻¹.1 in the first 2 groups and a mean increase of 3.5ng/ml in the last group (<i>P</i>=0.009 by Mann-Whitney test). Rates of elevated values were statistically different in the 3 groups at evaluation: 0%, 18%, 78% <i>(P</i><.0001). Pretherapeutic levels could also have a prognostic value on progression status of the disease with rates of elevated levels of 78% among pts with progression at evaluation and 41% for the other pts (<i>P</i>=0.03). Further data are needed to confirm this prognostic value both in a uni- and multivariate context. Further follow-up of our pts is also required to analyze the prognostic value of CYFRA 21–1 on survival.