HOW CAN YOU CHOOSE A BIOLOGICAL MARKER PANEL FOR GYNECOLOGICAL CANCER

Six biological markers; carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), tumor-associat ed trypsin inhibitor (TATI), tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA), tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS), squamous cell carcinoma antigen (S CC antigen) and cancer antigen 125 (CA 125) were studied in 71 individ uals (33 with gynecological tumors, 18 with benign gynecological disea ses and 20 normal healthy controls). At 100% specificity, tumor marker s showed sensitivities of 69.7%, 63.6%, 60.6%, 54.5%, 33.3% and 24.2% for CA 125, TPS, SCC antigen, TPA, TATI and CEA respectively, while th ey showed false positive rates in benign diseases of 22.2%, 16.7%, 55. 6%, 16.7%, 11.1% and 11.1% respectively. Combined determination of mar ker pairs revealed that the CA 125-TPS system was the best, showing a sensitivity of 90.9% and false positivity of 38.9%. TATI-TPA and CA 12 5-TPA combinations were also of value. By simultaneous determination o f three markers, we could reach a sensitivity of 100%: the best system s were CEA-TPS-CA 125, TATI-TPA-CA 125 and TPA-TPS-CA 125. For the fol low-up of cancer patients, TPA, TPS and CA 125 exhibited an excellent concordance.