Relationship between Preoperative Serum CA15-3 and CEA Levels and Clinicopathological Parameters in Breast Cancer

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> CEA and CA 15.3 serum tumor markers are currently used in clinical practice for monitoringtherapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate serum level of these markers among healthy females and invasivebreast carcinoma (IBC) patients and to determine any relationships with clinicopathological factors. Materialsand <br/><b>Methods</b>: 60 Iranian females were enrolled in this study, 30 healthy and 30 diagnosed with breast cancerwho had not received any preoperative chemotherapy or hormone therapy. Enzyme linked immunosorbentassays were used for the quantitative determination of the cancer associated antigens, CEA and MUC1 (CA15-3). <br/><b>Results</b>: The serological levels of CEA and CA15-3 (5.0033±0.49 μg/L and 178.1667±15.11 U/ml) in the breastcancer patients were significantly higher (p=0.00) than the serum levels of normal controls (1.1237±0.11 μg/Land 21.13±3.058 U/ml). Regarding the CEA marker, a significant correlation with grade of tumor was shown.Furthermore, there was a low correlation between CA15-3 and CEA marker with correlation coefficient r=0.08.<br/><b>Conclusions</b>: Collectively, markedly high levels of CEA and CA15-3 were found in our patients, pointing to theiruse as additional tools after clinical diagnosis.