There has been strong need for a simple, specific and sensitive tumor marker in diagnosing and following up the patients with breast cancer. Many markers have been developed and investigated, but CEA and CA 15-3 are two of the most widely used
tumor
markers for this disease.
In this study, we compared the CA 15-3 with CEA, Clinical analysis was performed on 67 patients diagnosed with breast cancer who were admitted to KangNam St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul, Korea, from Feb. 1985 to Apr. 1990.
@ES The results were as follows:
@EN 1) For groups with no evidence of metastatic breast cancer, there was no difference between the average value of CEA and CA 15-3 detected
2) All(100%) of the metastatic cases showed the significantly elevated level of CA 15-3, compared to 56% that showed CEA elevation
Our results indicate that CEA and CA 15-3 are not suitable for screening and diagnosis of patients with breast cancer, since they are not elevated in nonmetatatic primary breast cancer patient. Howerer, CA 15-3 is superior to CEA in detecting
recurrent
or metastatic breast cancer.
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