A pilot study of longitudinal serum cytokine and angiogenesis factor levels as markers of therapeutic response and survival in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Longitudinal changes in serum HGF, IL-6, IL-8, and VEGF were detected with treatment response, relapse, or complications in individual patients and were associated with survival, with HGF showing the strongest relationship with survival. HGF, IL-6, IL-8, and VEGF merit investigation as markers of response, survival, and recurrence in larger prospective studies.