Serum soluble interleukin–2 receptor concentrations as an independent prognostic marker in head and neck cancer

Currently head and neck squamous cell-carcinomas are staged clinically, though this is not ideal. We did a multivariate prospective study of 234 patients with head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma and showed that high serum concentrations of sIL–2Rα at diagnosis were highly correlated with a shorter survival (p<0·0001). In addition, patients who had low serum sIL-2Rα concentrations at diagnosis were less likely to develop distant metastasis during the 36 months follow up compared with the group with high serum sIL–2Rα concentrations (p<0·001). These findings suggest that serum sIL–2Rα could be considered as an independent serum biomarker in head and neck cancer patients.