Prognostic role of serum CA15.3 in 362 node-negative breast cancers. An old player for a new game

Prospective Evaluation of Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) and Carbohydrate Antigen 15.3 (CA 15.3) in Patients with Primary Locoregional Breast Cancer

“…These results are in accord with other articles published previously by our group with a smaller number of patients and shorter follow-up (16,18,26,27 ). Other studies have shown a shorter DFS and OS in patients with high values of these markers, whereas others report conflicting data (1,2,6,9,10,(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). The reasons for these discrepancies are difficult to explain, but are possibly related to the number of patients and the length of follow-up.…”

“…Our results clearly indicate that tumor markers, particularly CEA, are independent prognostic factors for both DFS and OS. Similar results have been reported by other authors using only CA 15.3 (9,15,19,36 ) or both tumor markers (10,17 ). In contrast, other authors in this time period have reported the prognostic value of these tumor markers only in univariate analysis (13 ) or have reported the absence of prognostic value (23 ).…”

“…Similar broad ranges in the rates of marker positivity have been found in primary breast cancer, ranging from 4% to 51% (1, 2, 5, 6, 9 -11 ). Several groups have reported a relationship between carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) 7 and/or carbohydrate antigen 15.3 (CA 15.3) positivity and tumor size or nodal involvement, whereas others have failed to confirm such a relationship (1,2,(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23). Further study of the prognostic value of tumor markers appears to be necessary (1,2,(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27).…”

Serum Tumor Markers in Breast Cancer: Are They of Clinical Value?

“…At least 10 published studies involving Ͼ4000 patients have addressed the relationship between preoperative concentrations of CA 15-3 and patient outcome (Table 3) (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23). Although a range of cutoff points were used (25-40 kilounits/L), all of the identified studies apart from one concluded that high concentrations of the marker at initial presentation predicted adverse patient outcome.…”

Relationships among Serum CA15-3 Tumor Marker, TNM Staging, and Estrogen and Progesterone Receptor Expression in Benign and Malignant Breast Lesions

“…Clinical uses of this marker include monitoring of patients with breast cancer (Duffy, 1999;Duffy et al, 2006), prognosis (McLaughlin et al, 2000), recurrence (Busetto et al, 1995;Molina et al, 1996;Molina et al, 1999) and metastasis (Elston et al, 1999;Thompson et al, 1991). CA15-3 level correlate exclusively with tumor size; higher CA15-3 serum level was found in advanced cancer stages, higher grades and metastasis (Berruti et al, 1994;Gang et al, 1985;Kikuchi et al, 1987;Theriault et al, 1989Theriault et al, :2007Tampellini et al, 1997;Gion et al, 2002). CA15-3 level increased in 10% stage I breast cancer disease, 20% stage II disease, 40% stage III disease, and 75% with stage IV disease (Duffy 2006).…”