Cervical cancer is a malignancy of the cervix. It may present with vaginal bleeding but symptoms may be absent until the cancer is in its advanced stages, which has made cervical cancer the focus of intense screening efforts utilizing the Pap smear. Most scientific studies have found that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is responsible for virtually all cases of cervical cancer. Treatment consists of surgery (including local excision) in early stages and chemotherapy and radiotherapy in advanced stages of the disease. An effective HPV vaccine against the two most common cancer-causing strains of HPV has recently been licensed in the US. These two HPV strains together are responsible for approximately 70% of all cervical cancers.

Beta-CF (Beta-core fragment)

• a fragment of the hCG beta-subunit missing its carboxyterminal peptide. The determination of urinary beta-CF may provide a useful tool in monitoring the response to treatment in patients with cervical cancer. PMID: 1545171

CD34

• a marker for evaluating angiogenesis in cervical cancer. PMID: 15991838

CDH1/CDH13

• detection of aberrant methylation of CDH1/CDH13 may be of potential use as a marker for selecting cervical cancer patients at high risk for relapse who could benefit from additional systemic therapy. PMID: 14750164

ERCC1

• a molecular marker of cisplatin resistance in human cervical tumor cells. PMID: 11008208

HIF-1alpha

• a strong independent prognostic marker in early stage cervical cancer. PMID: 10987269

HPV-16 L1

• Antibodies to HPV-16 L1 were found to be an independent prognostic factor for overall survival in patients with cervical cancer. PMID: 11967495

HPV DNA

• serum HPV DNA might be a useful additional marker for early detection of recurrence in cervical cancer patients. PMID: 14643453
• In patients with cervical cancer, an approach based on a PCR test for HPV DNA in tumor-free regional lymph nodes may allow early identification of women at high risk for relapse who should receive adjuvant treatment. PMID: 9166495

Id-1

• an independent prognostic marker in early-stage cervical cancer. PMID: 11479201

p16

• a useful marker for the detection of the adenocarcinoma of the cervix uteri and its precursors. PMID: 12548164

p21WAF1/CIP1

• Expression of p21WAF1/CIP1 correlated with a favorable prognosis for patients with cervical adenocarcinoma and may serve as a useful marker of survival in cases of this disease. PMID: 9635534

PP-4 (placental protein 4)

• a recently characterized glycoprotein from human placenta, can be regarded as a tumor associated protein which most likely can serve as tumor marker in cervical and endometrial cancer. PMID: 1833844

SCC antigen (squamous cell carcinoma antigen)

• a new tumor marker for cervical carcinoma. PMID: 2591447
• might be helpful in the control of the primary therapy and follow-up of cervical cancer patients. PMID: 2777050
• proved to be a valuable tumour marker for the follow up of cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancer. PMID: 2721888

Tn antigen (Tn-Ag)

• a combination of estimations of the degree of cancer involvement in the cervical stroma and Tn-Ag expression seems the most useful for predicting the prognosis of patients with cervical cancer. PMID: 8508399

TPS

• especially in the combination with SCC may be useful in the diagnosis and estimation of stage of disease of patients with cervical carcinoma. PMID: 11320545

Tu M2-PK

• can be used as a tumor marker in follow-up of patients with cervical carcinoma. PMID: 15210041

UGF (urinary gonadotropin fragment) and SCC (squamous cell carcinoma antigen)

• both UGF and SCC be used to monitor therapy and to detect recurrences of cervical and vulvar cancers. PMID: 2354828

Other Cervical Cancer Markers

• Histological determination of Mitotic Index (MI)/ Apoptotic Index (AI) ratio proved to be an economical and potentially useful adjunct in predicting clinical outcome of patients with cervical adenocarcinoma. PMID: 14984954