Circulating prolactin and TPS in monitoring the clinical course of male patients with metastatic tongue cancer: a preliminary study.

Serum prolactin and tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS) were assayed pretherapeutically and sequentially thereafter in 20 male patients with advanced (stages III and IV) tongue cancer. The markers were correlated with disease stage, histologic grade and an attempt was also made to compare the predictive value of these markers and two year survival. Prolactin and TPS levels were significantly higher at diagnosis when compared to controls (a = 0.005). Prolactin and TPS levels did not correlate with stage and histologic grade of the tumor. We found that the positive predictive value for prolactin and TPS was 100% and 75% respectively. The two year survival of patients with prolactin > 15.0 ng/ml was 7.88 +/- 1.48 months, compared to 16.98 +/- 1.47 months of those with prolactin less than 15.0 ng/ml (P < 0.001), whereas such a trend was not observed for TPS. This analysis showed an excellent correlation between serial serum prolactin changes and the response to treatment or progression of disease in patients with advanced tongue carcinoma.