C. Pasquali et al., CLINICAL-VALUE OF SERUM TAG-172 AS A TUMOR-MARKER FOR PANCREATIC-CARCINOMA, International journal of pancreatology, 15(3), 1994, pp. 171-177
We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the carbohydrate antig
en TAG-72 as a tumor marker for pancreatic cancer compared with the se
rum values of CA 19-9. Forty healthy controls, 58 patients with pancre
atic carcinoma, and 45 patients with chronic pancreatitis were studied
. In patients with pancreatic cancer, 47/58 (81%) and 26/58 (45%) had
raised serum levels of CA 19-9 and TAG-72, respectively; the sensitivi
ty of the tests was not influenced by jaundice. In the chronic pancrea
titis patients, both CA 19-9 and TAG-72 were elevated in 2/45 patients
(4.4%). Both tests showed a specificity of 95%. Consequently, the sen
sitivity of TAG-72 was too low compared with CA 19-9. Moreover, serum
TAG-72 could not detect small pancreatic cancers. High levels of both
tumor markers were found in advanced stages of cancer. No advantage wa
s found using both CA 19-9 and TAG-72 for improving the detection of p
ancreatic cancer. TAG-72 serum levels > 10 U/mL are closely related to
unresectability of the tumor. Only 4/17 (23%) of patients with resect
able tumor had high TAG-72 levels. Serum TAG-72 expression seems to be
more frequent in poorly-differentiated tumors than in well-differenti
ated cancers (56 vs 30% positivity rate).