[Clinical usefulness of carcinoembryonic antigen measurement in nipple discharge as an adjunctive tool for diagnosis of breast cancer].
We measured carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in 43 cases with abnormal nipple discharge by means of enzyme immunoassay utilizing monoclonal anti-CEA antibodies. When the cut-off value was set at 400 ng/ml so that the cases where measured values are not less than this value may be interpreted to be positive, the sensitivity and specificity were 60% and 75% respectively. The clear relationship was virtually observed between the concentration of CEA in nipple discharge and the cytological diagnosis. 9 of 10 malignant cases showed positive in both or either of the CEA assay and the cytological examination. And we could find 1 case of the zero stage of breast cancer and 4 cases in non-invasive carcinoma (Tis) through the combined diagnosis. On the other hand, only 2 of 8 benign cases showed false positive results. The correlation between the CEA concentration in nipple discharge and intratumoral expression of CEA was also observed. In this study, we concluded that the combined use of the enzyme immunoassay and the cytological examination would be more effective in the detection of early breast cancer accompanied with abnormal nipple discharge.
Nishiguchi
T
T
Department of Clinical Laboratory, Osaka National Hospital.
Hishimoto
T
T
Funahashi
S
S
Takatsuka
Y
Y
Kawahara
T
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis*; D005122:Exudates and Transudates / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008875:Middle Aged; D009558:Nipples / Q000378:metabolism*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests
D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen