| Popis: |
Sevenhundredandtwelve patients with a known history of breast or gastro-intestinal cancer in the stage of post-primary treatment have been followed up on the basis of three tumor markers: the Tissuepolypeptideantigen TPA, the carcinoembryonic antigen CEA and the pancreas carcinoma-associated antigen CA-19-9. Twenty two percent of all patients exhibted normal TPA values(below 85 U/l) and 66% showed normal CEA levels(below 3ng/ml). TPA alone was increased in 33.9% of the patients, CEA in 7%. CA-19-9 was elevated in 220 patients (or 30.9%), but only 4 patients exhibited abnormal CA-19-9 values concomittant with normal TPA and CEA values. These findings suggest that the combined use of two or more markers increases the sensitivity and specificity in comparison to a single tumor marker. The results of the follow-up studies revealed an increase in TPA values for a constant period of time to be indicative of a recurrent neoplastic process., KEYWORDS Tumor markers, Cancer control, CEA, TPA, CA-19-9, Breast Cancer, Gastro-intestinal cancer |
