Serum AFP, hCG and CEA in the Management of Patients with Testicular, Ovarian and Extragonadal Germ Cell Tumors

Abstract

Serum levels of AFP, hCG and CEA were initially and serially measured in 59 patients with testicular germ cell tumors, and serially in 37 with ovarian and 3 with extragonadal germ cell tumors. Patients with seminoma/dysgerminoma or mature teratoma had normal serum AFP and sporadically slightly elevated hCG. Some patients with embryonal carcinoma, pure or with admixture of seminoma, had serum AFP elevated to maximum 100 U/ml, yet its use for monitoring therapy was limited. Patients with yolk sac tumors had elevated AFP and sometimes CEA levels, those with choriocarcinoma had elevated hCG, and those with compound tumors had one or more of the markers highly elevated. High AFP and/or hCG levels indicated the presence of the relevant tumor cells both in the primary and in residual tumor and/or metastases, also those missed in histological material, and thus were useful in restaging. Unfortunately, their absence in serum did not exclude the presence of marker-negative subpopulations of tumor cells. Changes in marker values paralleled the effects of treatment: the level increasing from any nadir heralded recurrence in patients in remission; elevated or increasing levels during therapy implied resistance to the therapy; decreasing levels indicated regression even though a return to the normal range did not mean eradication of all tumor cells.

Association betweenHelicobacter pyloriinfection and tumor markers: an observational retrospective study

“…This was inconsistent with the results of continuous variable analysis. To our knowledge, there is no globally accepted standard cut-off value of tumour markers for cancer screening at present, although previous research has indicated that AFP is commonly used as a tumour marker to help to detect and diagnose cancers of the liver, testicles and ovaries 37 38 and CA724 has a potential in diagnosis of gastric cancer. 9 We cannot provide strong evidence to determine that H. pylori infection plays a role in the cancer process with our limited results.…”

Προγνωστικοί Μοριακοί Βιολογικοί Δείκτες Του Καρκινώματος Της Ουροδόχου Κύστης

“…Χρησιμεύει, όμως, στην διάγνωση, παρακολούθηση, πρόγνωση και ταξινόμηση πολλών κακοήθων νόσων. Έχει χρησιμοποιηθεί στα νεοπλάσματα του γαστρεντερικού [101][102][103][104][105] , παγκρέατος 106 , πνεύμονος 107,108 , μαστού 109 , ωοθηκών 110 , ενδομητρίου 111 , προστάτου 112 , όρχεων 113 , ουροδόχου κύστης 114 , θυρεοειδούς 115 , κοκ. Η ευαισθησία του είναι περίπου 80% (διακύμανση 17-89%) και η εξειδίκευσή του 70% (διακύμανση 34-91%) 96 .…”