Comparison of tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) with cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in follow-up of breast cancer

Cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and tissue po lypeptide antigen (TPA) were measured in 679 sera of breast cancer patients and in 94 sera of women without breast cancer. The tumour markers were det ermined using immunoluminometric assays (ILMA). The assays are characterise d by an inter-assay-imprecision and intra-assay-imprecision <4 %. The breas t cancer patients were staged according to the TNM classification stage 0-I V (by UICC) in patient groups with a compatible prognosis. Median and range of each stage were investigated. The cut-off values (95th and 97.5th perce ntile of control group) of CA 15-3, CEA and TPA were determined; specificit y, sensitivity, positive and negative predictive value (PV) and efficiency were investigated for these cut-off's and the receiver operating characteri stic (ROC) curves were calculated. The differences between control group an d stage 0-3 were shown as non-significant for CA 15-3 and CEA but significa nt for TPA. Significant differences were found in stage 4 for all three tum our markers. The three tumour markers did not have differences in specifici ty, positive and negative PV and efficiency. TPA and CA 15-3 demonstrated c omparable results in sensitivity and ROC curve analyses. These results were better than those from CEA.