Evaluation of glycoproteins as prognosticators in head and neck malignancy

Although several serum glycoprotein assays have been conducted for identifying tumor markers and prognosticators of malignancies, presently assessment of effectiveness of treatment of these malignancies remains subjective and good and effective tumor markers and prognosticators of head and neck malignancies are yet to be identified. In our study, serum samples from forty patients with head and neck cancers who were divided into four groups of ten patients each on the basis of their clinical staging and serum samples from ten healthy individuals comprising the control group was taken and subjected to biochemical analysis of serum protein bound hexose, serum fucose, serum sialic acid levels before starting treatment of the cancers and after completion of the cancer treatment and compared with the levels of these serum glycoproteins amongst the control group. All the head and neck cancer patients showed elevated levels of the serum glycoproteins as compared to the control group. It was further noted that the increased levels of the serum glycoproteins correlated well with the clinical staging of the malignancies. Post-treatment levels of all the serum glycoproteins were decreased significantly but, only the serum sialic acid level in 6 out of 10 patients with stage-I malignancy returned to the base line levels as seen in the control group. Serum sialic acid levels showed very close correlation with tumor staging and maybe considered as a good tumor marker and prognosticator for detection of cancer and evaluation of effectiveness of treatment of head and neck malignancies.