ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance of Cyfra21-1 as a new tumour marker in the diagnosis of squamous cell cervical cancer. Cyfra21-1 enzyme immunoassay was used for the determination of Cyfra21-1 levels in sera of 120 cervical cancer patients and 17 normal control cases. According to the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage, these cervical cancer patients were staged at CIN or CIS, stage I, stage II and stage III (19,17,42 and 42 cases, respec-tively). The 17 normal controls comprised five healthy women and 12 patients with benign gynaecological diseases and tumours that had presented negative results from Papanicolauo smears. We found that the normal value of serum Cyfra21-1 level was 0.99 + 0.28 ng/ml (mean+ 2SE). Serum Cyfra21-1 levels of the cervical cancer patients increased depending on the severity of the disease. Moreover, the Serum Cyfra12-1 levels of only the patients with FIGO stage III were significantly higher than those of the normal controls, and the patients in CIN or CIS and stage I (p=0.0055). The serum Cyfra21-1 levels of the normal controls the patients in CIN or CIS, stage I, and stage II differed insignificantly from one another. This test showed a sensitivity of 65 per cent and specificity of 82 per cent. The ROC curve was used to determine the cut-off value (1.3 ng/ml) of the increased levels. A prospective study should be further performed to evaluate the usefulness of this marker as a non-invasive modality for diagnosis and monitoring cervical cancer in the future.