Abstract:Objective To evaluate the clinical application value of detecting the serum levels of squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCAg), cathepsin-D (Cath-D) and carbohydrate antigen (CA125) in the diagnosis and prediction of the metastasis of squamous carcinoma of the cervix (SCC). Methods Serum levels of SCCAg and Cath-D were tested by ELISA, and CA125 level was detected by chemiluminescent immunoassay. All the cases were collected from Jan. 30, 2009 to Apr. 1, 2012. The experiment group consisted of 60 cases with stageⅠA2-ⅡA SCC. The control group was divided into two subgroups: cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) group and chronic cervicitis group with 60 cases in each group. Serum levels of SCCAg, Cath-D and CA125 in the experimental group were detected before operation. Then the relationships of serum SCCAg, Cath-D and CA125 levels with pathological features, metastasis and relapse of SCC were analyzed. Results The preoperative serum levels of SCCAg, Cath-D and CA125 in the experiment group were (1.41 ± 0.26) ng/ml, (19.14 ± 1.52) ng/L and (17.42 ± 0.90) u/ml respectively, which were significantly higher than those in the two control groups (P = 0.003, 0.005, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000 and 0.000). The serum levels of SCCAg and Cath-D had different degrees of correlations with clinical stage, gross tumor volume, tumor cell differentiation, depth of interstitial infiltration, vascular tumor embolus, para-uterine metastasis, and pelvic lymph node metastasis of SCC, and the differences were significant (P < 0.05). The change of CA125 level was only related to the depth of interstitial invasion of cervical cancer, and the difference was significant (P = 0.007). Based on the ROC analysis, the critical values of SCCAg, Cath-D and CA125 for diagnosis of SCC were 1.03 ng/ml, 13.58 ng/L and 8.16 u/ml; and the critical values for predicting metastasis were 3.21 ng/ml, 21.20 ng/L and 12.45 u/ml; and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.954, 0.905 and 0.718, respectively. Conclusions Detection of SCCAg and Cath-D in serum has high clinical value for diagnosing and staging SCC as well as predicting its recurrence. The combination of SCCAg, Cath-D and C A125 could improve the accuracy of predicting metastasis of SCC.