Serum tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS): a complementary tumor marker to CA 15-3 in the management of breast cancer

The efficacy of CEA and CA15-3 tumor markers in monitoring breast cancer wa s evaluated in 1365 patients with either benign (n = 534) or malignant (n = 831) breast diseases. Thirty-nine breast cancer patients were monitored be fore and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Three hundred forty-nine patients were monitored during post-surgical follow-up for either a minimum of 5 yea rs or until time of recurrence. Twenty-one patients with metastases were al so monitored during chemotherapy. Elevated CA 15-3 and TPS levels were foun d in 28.6% and 30.0% of patients. CA 15-3 and TPS sensitivities rose to 71. 9% and 66.3% in metastatic patients, respectively. The addition of TPS to C A 15-3 increased the sensitivity up to 44.4% in the overall population, and to 87.6% in patients with metastases. During post-surgical follow-up CA 15 -3 was elevated in 65.7% and TPS in 61.3% of patients with recurrence. The combination of TPS and CA 15-3 increased the overall sensitivity by 12.7%. Longitudinal monitoring of metastatic patients undergoing chemotherapy demo nstrated that, when positive, both CA 15-3 and TPS paralleled response to t reatment. TPS monitoring may provide additional value when used in combinat ion with CA15-3 during post-surgical follow-up of breast cancer patients.