CA 125 Elevation in Breast Cancer: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

A 69-year-old postmenopausal woman with newly diagnosed inflammatory breast cancer was evaluated for a pelvic mass found incidentally during staging computed tomography (CT) scans. Her serum cancer antigen (CA) 125 was greater than 900 U/ml, but laparoscopic examination of the ovaries was normal. Her breast cancer was deemed metastatic by virtue of a supraclavicular lymph node, but she had no visceral or bone metastasis. She was begun on primary chemotherapy and her CA 125 normalized. CA 125 is a tumor-associated antigen that is most commonly seen in advanced ovarian cancer. It is predominantly derived from coelomic epithelium, which explains elevations in benign conditions or other malignancies. The significance of CA 125 elevations in breast cancer is uncertain. Although CA 125 production has been demonstrated in the normal breast, it has been reported most often as a marker of pleural involvement with metastatic breast cancer. Further information on CA 125 in breast cancer is required to delineate its role in the management of this disease.

Array-Based Multiplex Analysis of DNA Methylation in Breast Cancer Tissues

“…In DCIS, the fraction of estrogen receptor-positive tumors (100%) was higher than reported (P Ͻ 0.001), but the fraction of progesterone-positive tumors (75%) was similar. 13 In IDC, the fraction of tumors expressing estrogen and progesterone receptors was consistent with reported values. 13 The percentage of p53-positive tumors was close to reported for both DCIS 14 and IDC 15 groups.…”

Extracellular Activity of Cyclic AMP–Dependent Protein Kinase as a Biomarker for Human Cancer Detection: Distribution Characteristics in a Normal Population and Cancer Patients

“…Serum biomarkers, such as carcinoembryonic antigen, vascular endothelial growth factor, aberrant DNA or RNA, neuron-specific enolase, cancer antigens (i.e., CA125), cytokeratin fragments (i.e., CYFRA 21-1), and several others, have been identified (36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43). These have been evaluated as biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and progression, and treatment efficacy.…”

“…These have been evaluated as biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and progression, and treatment efficacy. Singly, none of these molecules have optimal specificity or sensitivity to accurately differentiate between cancer and normal patients because they are expressed by normal tissues or because there is too much variation between patients or between the concentrations in the same patient on different days (36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41). Nevertheless, some of these molecules are being used as end points for therapy and are being evaluated in clinical trials for their predictive value (44,45).…”

Ectokinases as novel cancer markers and drug targets in cancer therapy

“…According to recent cancer statistics, the 5-year survival rate dramatically drops if cancer is detected at a late stage [55]. Most of the current serum tumor markers are based on the antigen determination method, including CEA, AFP, hCG, PSA, and CA125, but lack tumor specificity and often cannot be used in early cancer screening and diagnosis [56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63]. To overcome these shortcomings, novel, cheap, and fast diagnostic tools need to be developed.…”