NEW MUCIN-LIKE CANCER-ASSOCIATED ANTIGENS (CA-M-26, CA-M-29 AND CA-549) AND A NEW PROLIFERATION MARKER (TPS) IN PATIENTS WITH PRIMARY OR ADVANCED BREAST-CANCER

In patients with breast cancer no tumor markers giving satisfactory re sults have been found yet. The aim of our investigation was to compare the usefulness of newly developed tumor markers with the most common used carcinoembryonic antigen and cancer antigen (CA) 15-3. We evaluat ed the concentrations of carcinoma-associated antigen (CA) 549, carcin oma-associated mucin antigen (CAM) 26 and CAM 29, and the proliferatio n markers tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) and tissue polypeptide-spec ific antigen (TPS) in 84 breast cancer patients with disease progressi on and in 69 patients with no evidence of disease after surgery for br east cancer. Using receiver-operating characteristic curves (ROC curve s) we were able to demonstrate increased sensitivity and specificity o f all tested tumor markers in patients with metastatic disease compare d with local disease. In our investigation TPA is superior to TPS in a ll disease states. In local disease, none of the tested markers shows satisfying results. In metastatic disease, the new mucin markers CAM 2 6 and CAM 29 show slightly better results than CA 15-3 although their ROC curves are nearly congruent. CA 549 is exceeded by the other mucin markers. The best results in this investigation were obtained with CA M 29. The overall results concerning the detection of small tumor mass es (i.e. local disease) were unsatisfactory.