CLINICAL EVALUATION OF CA 15-3 IN BREAST CANCER PATIENTS

Abstract

The usefulness and limitations of the clinical application of CA 15-3 were studied in patients with breast cancer. Based on the data obtained from healthy subjects, the cut-off value was set at 20 ng/ml. Data collected from patients with breast cancer indicated that the positive rate in patients with primary breast cancer was not high (5.9%). Consequently, CA 15-3 is not considered to be especially useful in preoperative diagnosis. However, in patients with recurrent breast cancer, a high positive rate (81.6%) was obtained. This fact shows the usefulness of CA 15-3 in postoperative monitoring. Meanwhile, the sensitivity of CA 15-3 in the early detection of recurrence was thought to be low. There was little correlation between CA 15-3 and other tumor markers (CEA, TPA, Ferritin). Thus, improvement in the diagnostic rate using a combination of tumor markers, including CA 15-3, is expected.