Effect of hyperthermia on proliferation and deviation of carcinoembryonic antigen and squamous cell carcinoma-related antigen of human esophageal carcinoma cells in culture.

As a basic study of hyperthermia on malignant tumors, we investigated the kinetics of proliferative activity and the values of tumor markers carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and squamous cell carcinoma-related antigen (SCC) in a human esophageal carcinoma cell line, SGF-4, following a change of culture temperature. The temperature range allowing cultured SGF-4 cells to proliferate was from 37 degrees C to 40 degrees C. In an experiment examining the recovery of proliferative activity, no proliferative activity was observed after the cultured cells were exposed to 42 degrees C for 72 hours. The values of CEA and SCC as tumor markers were found to be increased in association with the cell damage due to the change of temperature. These markers could thus be useful as indicators for evaluations of hyperthermia therapy effectiveness.