Abstract
Breast cancer is currently becoming a disease of the elderly. We have studied the relation between CA 15.3 serum concentrations and clinical-pathological parameters in 69 women with IDC aged over 70 years (76.3 ± 4.2; range: 71–88; median 76). A group of 205 women with the same tumor but aged <70 years (62.8 ± 4.0; range: 55–70; median 63) was also considered for comparison. Tumor size, axillary lymph node involvement, distant metastasis and histological grade were taken account. Serum CA 15.3 was determined by luminescence assay. CA 15.3 serum concentrations ranged between 6 and 85 U/mL (median 22.9 U/mL), and were higher only in patients with greater (qualitative and quantitative; p: 0.041) tumor size. Our results show that in women with IDCs, and aged over 70 years, serum CA 15.3 serum concentrations are associated exclusively with a greater tumor size, being these findings different to those described in women with the same subtype of tumor considered as a whole or with lower age.
Highlights
Introduction1 gene, which is expressed at the luminal epithelial layer
The carbohydrate antigen 15.3 (CA 15.3) is a tumor marker originated from the epithelial mucin1 gene, which is expressed at the luminal epithelial layer
It is used in patients with breast cancer, and its main clinical application lies in the monitoring of them in order to detect early recurrences and/or distant metastasis, as well as to know the effectiveness of a therapy [1,2,3]
Summary
1 gene, which is expressed at the luminal epithelial layer It is used in patients with breast cancer, and its main clinical application lies in the monitoring of them in order to detect early recurrences and/or distant metastasis, as well as to know the effectiveness of a therapy [1,2,3]. Likewise, this marker can be useful with PET/CT to show tumor recurrence, especially when there is not any evidence by other imaging techniques [4]. The 5 year percentage of local recurrence was lower (3%) in older patients than in women below
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