VALUE OF NORMAL CA15-3 AND CEA LEVELS WIT H INCREASING TREND

A slow rise of tumor markers in the serological follow-up of breast ca ncer after operation often preceeds their increase above the cut off. With a time trend analysis being retrospectively performed on tumor ma rkers obtained in a case of 4.5 years of follow-up, a significant mark er increase is described as early as 1 year before a clinical diagnosi s of tumor recurrence. For post-therapeutic tumor surveillance the imp lementation of repeated statistical evaluation for a time trend of tum or markers is suggested.