Purpose of investigation: The clinical use of tumor markers during breast cancer follow-up is still surrounded by controversy. The objective of this study consisted of determining the contribution of the CEA marker to CA 15.3 in the follow-up of breast cancer patients as applied to clinical practice.
Methods: Three hundred and eighteen cases of women with breast cancer were analyzed retrospectively as far as the sensitivity, the specificity and the positive and negative predictable values of the CA 15.3 and CEA markers.
Results: Of the 318 patients, 59 suffered a relapse during the study. After evaluation of both markers the sensitivity was 56.8% (CA 15.3: 47.4%), the specificity 85.3% (CA 15.3: 88.4%), the positive predictable value was 46.4% (CA 15.3: 48.2%) and the negative predictable value was 89.41% (CA 15.3: 88%).
Conclusions: The low sensitivity of studied tumor markers proved of limited use on a clinical scale.