Early diagnosis of radiotherapy failure for patients with head and neck cancer: the role of biochemical markers.

Purpose: There is a lack of effective diagnostic tools for early assessment of radiotherapy (RT) outcome in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). The timely diagnosis of treatment failure may facilitate use of salvage procedures to prevent disease progression. We assessed squamous cell carcinoma antigen and CYFRA 21-1 as early markers of radiotherapy failure in patients with HNC.

Methods: Between January 2009 and February 2012, 185 patients (median age 59 years) with squamous cell carcinoma were treated with curative intent with RT alone or combined with chemotherapy (ChT). Markers were estimated in the serum 2 times: before RT and after completion of treatment.

Results: The median of follow-up was 40 months. Locoregional control (LRC) was 53% and locoregional failure (LRF) was 31%. When comparing LRC and LRF, there were no significant differences between markers concentration obtained before RT. After RT, CYFRA 21-1 (p = 0.018) was significantly elevated in the LRF group. Patients with CYFRA 21-1 <1.79 ng/mL had a higher disease-free survival rate compared to patients with CYFRA 21-1 ≥1.79 ng/mL (74% vs 53%, respectively). After RT, CYFRA 21-1 was significantly related to the overall survival ratio in both univariate (p = 0.049) and multivariate analysis (p = 0.019).

Conclusions: CYFRA 21-1 assessed at the end of RT or ChT seems to be a prognostic marker for tumor response. A high concentration of CYFRA 21-1 after treatment increases the risk of death. CYFRA 21-1 might be suggested in the monitoring of carcinomas of HNC.