squamous cell carcinoma

To Dr.Fernando Roque,

Sir,

I have certain doubts regarding my mother's biopsy and clinical tests.

The biopsy says squamous cells but the tumor marker CA9-19 is very elevated raising suspicions like pancreatic or colon cancer.The chemotherapy started was gemcitabine (1 gm). Is it used for squamous cell carcinoma ?

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  An elevated CA 19-9 would make us suspicious of a pancreatic origin for those liver tumors, but the CA 19-9 is not highly specific and does not definitely prove a pancreatic origin.  Given a biopsy result and a tumor marker result which are conflicting, I would tend to believe the biopsy result as this provides more compelling evidence (unless the pathology laboratory which read the biopsy slide is unreliable).

If the squamous carcinoma comes from the lung, gemcitabine is useful, but if it came from some other organ such as the cervix, this chemotherapy may be less effective.