Our aim was to evaluate whether serum concentrations of
squamous cell carcinoma antigen (
SCC-Ag) are an independent prognostic factor in patients with
vulvar cancer. We measured
SCC-Ag in pretreatment serum samples of 55 patients with squamous cell
vulvar cancer, 30 patients with vulvar intraepithelial
neoplasia (VIN) grade III and 50 healthy female controls. The results were compared with clinical data. Median serum concentrations of
SCC-Ag in healthy female controls, patients with VIN III, and patients with invasive
vulvar cancer were 0.5 (range 0.1 to 3.8) ng/mL, 0.5 (range 0 to 4.1) ng/mL and 1.6 (range 0.3 to 65) ng/mL, respectively (Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.001). The 75% quantile of serum concentrations of
SCC-Ag in patients with
vulvar cancer was defined as cut-off level. Elevated pretreatment serum concentrations of
SCC-Ag were significantly correlated with a shorter disease-free and overall survival (log-rank test, p=0.002; and p<0.001, respectively). A multivariate Cox regression model showed that serum concentrations of
SCC-Ag are a prognostic factor of disease-free and overall survival independent of tumour stage (multivariate Cox regression model, p=0.03; and p=0.048, respectively). Pre-treatment serum concentrations of
SCC-Ag were not correlated with tumour stage, histological grade and patients' age. In summary, our data indicate that serum concentrations of
SCC-Ag may be an additional independent prognostic factor of disease-free and overall survival in patients with
vulvar cancer.