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Background. Although sinonasal inverted papilloma (IP) is a rare benign tumor, it has a tendency to recur and is sometimes associated with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Therefore, postoperative long-term follow-up of these patients is recommended. We previously reported that serum SCC antigen might be a useful tumor marker for sinonasal IP. In this study, we investigated whether serum SCC antigen level has a correlation with disease status and is useful in the early detection of recurrent disease. Methods. Blood samples for the analysis of serum SCC antigen were taken from 28 IP patients before and after surgical treatment. Results. Twenty-five (89%) of 28 cases showed evaluated serum SCC antigen levels above the upper limit. This marker level decreased in all cases after surgical resection. Four of these patients had a recurrence. None of the patients with recurrent tumor showed symptoms at the time of detection of their recurrent tumor, and recurrence was discovered from elevated levels of SCC antigen. Conclusions. Serum SCC antigen level has a correlation with disease status of IP and has a potential to serve as a useful tool for monitoring the course of disease. SCC antigen is a reliable tumor marker in the management of sinonasal IPs. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck27: 44–48, 2005

Background A relatively high failure rate in the therapy of patients with early oral tongue squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) is evidenced by untreated clinically negative neck lymph node metastasis. It is important to predict the malignant potential of oral tongue SCC in stage I and II patients, because the development of lymph node metastasis directly affects the prognosis of the patients. Methods We evaluated maspin expression immunohistochemically in patients with stage I and II oral tongue SCCs and determined whether the expression level may be a useful factor in predicting metastatic potential and prognosis of these SCCs. Results Clinical follow-up data showed a longer disease-free interval and overall survival periods for tumors immunohistochemically positive for maspin than for tumors negative for maspin, with the difference in disease-free interval being statistically significant (p = .01). The absence of maspin expression was found more frequently in cases of subsequent cervical lymph node metastasis than in cases without metastasis (p = .03). Conclusions Decreased maspin expression may be a significant factor associated with the metastatic potential of stage I and II oral tongue SCCs. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Head Neck 23: 962–966, 2001.