The Monitoring Significance of Serum Concentrations CA 15-3 and CEA in the Postoperative Patients with Breast Cancer

Objective To investigate the significance of combined detection of CA 15-3 and CEA in the postoperative patients with breast cancer. Methods The concentrations of CA 15-3 and CEA were respectively detected by IRMA and RIA in blood. Results ① The levels of CA 15-3 in 4 cases and CEA in 3 cases were increased in the 100 postoperative breast cancer patients without recurrence and metastasis,and the positive rate is 4.0% and 3.0% respectively. In the 20 cases with recurrence and metastasis, 15 patients were measured with higher CA 15-3 and 11 patients with higher CEA,which the sensitivity is 75.0% and 55.0% respectively.14 positive patients were detected by either of the methods,which the sensitivity is 70.0%. Combined detection had no significant difference compared with CA 15-3 alone. No case in patients without recurrence and metastasis and 6 cases in patients with metastasis and recurrence were detected for both CA 15-3 and CEA concurrent abnormality, its sensitivity is 30.0%. ②The level of CA 15-3 or CEA is significantly higher in the breast cancer patients with metastasis and recurrence than that in those metastasis and recurrence. Conclusion The detection of CA 15-3 and/or CEA can be an important index for the follow-up to the postoperative breast cancer, and is important for predicting the recurrence and metastasis of breast cancer.