[Tumor markers in breast cancer: on the diagnostic value of serum determinations in clinical freedom from tumor and manifest disease].

We have analyzed 1301 serum determinations of the tumor markers CA 15-3 and CEA in 405 breast cancer patients. CA 15-3 exhibited a higher accuracy than CEA (sensitivity-specificity diagram). Using cut-off levels of 30 U/ml (CA 15-3) and 5 ng/ml (CEA) we observed a sensitivity of 70.7% versus 61.8% and an approximate specificity of 93.8% versus 83.4%. The sensitivity of the panel of both markers was 80.9%, the specificity 84.5%. The high specificity of both markers caused high positive predictive values. The marker expression was higher in patients with hematogenic metastasis than with local recurrences (the median for CA 15-3 levels was 88.2 U/ml versus 26.6 U/ml; for CEA: 10.0 ng/ml versus 2.5 ng/ml). Less expression of both markers in patients younger than 40 years in comparison to patients older than 40 seems to be remarkable. Early detection of relapse - a marker increase over the cut-off level before clinical proof - was observed in 43.8% (CA 15-3; median of leadtime 6.1 months) of 73 patients; CEA: 24.7%, 7.2 months. Metastasis was predicted 3-6 times more often than local recurrences. Monitoring of the manifest more or less progressed tumor is still the main task of present tumor markers. But the results also suggesting the use of these markers for early detection of metastasis, especially in panels.