Serum SCCA levels in patients suffering cancers or other diseases

Increased serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) levels are clinically used diagnostic or prognostic biomarker for squamous cell carcinomas. According to recently published studies, increased serum SCCA levels are also observed in adenocarcinomas, hepatocarcinomas, kidney, and other inflammatory diseases, indicating squamous cell carcinoma is not the production source of serum SCCA in these diseases. However, serum SCCA levels in patients suffering different types of diseases have not been systematically measured and compared. Thus, in our current study, serum SCCA levels from 21,608 patients with 39 clinically defined diseases were collected and measured by the clinical laboratory in the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University over the past 5 years in addition to 232 serum samples from individuals who attend their annual physical examination as the healthy controls. According to the median, mean, and − log10 p values, we found that patients with uremia, azotemia, diabetic nephropathy, and nephritic syndrome had the highest serum SCCA levels among all 39 different types of diseases including patients suffering squamous cell carcinomas. Moreover, patients suffering lung cancer, cervical cancer, esophagus cancer, or chronic pulmonary disease had lower median and interquartile range values but higher or comparable mean values and significantly higher SD values than that of the healthy controls. Furthermore, patients with endometrial cancer, pancreatitis, osteoporosis, and some other diseases had lower serum SCCA levels than that of the healthy controls. These results demonstrated that serum SCCA can not only be used in diagnosis and prognosis of squamous cell carcinomas but also as biomarkers for uremia, azotemia, diabetic nephropathy, and nephritic syndrome.