CONCORDANCE BETWEEN SERUM AND CYTOSOLIC LEVELS OF CEA CA125 AND SCC ANTIGENS IN PATIENTS WITH NON-SMALL-CELL LUNG-CANCER

The relationship between serum and cytosolic levels of carcinoembryoni c (CEA), squamous - cell carcinoma (SCC) and CA125 antigens was determ ined in 122 patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer. A pronounced seru m-cytosol gradient and a high degree of dispersion in the distribution of serum and cytosol marker concentrations was detected. In addition the degree of concordance between TM levels in the two compartments, d etermined by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) index, was l ow (ICC = 0.42 for CEA; 0.35 for CA125; and 0.27 for SCC). Tumour stag e and histological type both played a limited role in the serum-cytoso l relationship. As tumour stage advanced the concordance between serum and cytosolic TM level became more pronounced In addition, each histo logical type showed a distinctive pattern of expression of serum and c ytosolic tumour markers, and a specific degree of concordance between levels in serum and cytosol. However the ICC indices were always under 0.51, indicating that the importance of these factors is minor. The d ata obtained indicate that the relationship between serum and cytosoli c concentration is moderate. The differences found according to stage grouping and histological subtype are so small that no clear-cut messa ge for clinical practice can be drawn.