title: Elevated carcinoembryonic antigen levels in the milk of a nursing mother with inoperable breast cancer.
abstract: Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) determinations performed in the milk of a nursing mother with an inoperable breast cancer revealed a 10-15-fold higher level compared with CEA levels in the milk of healthy nursing women. CEA was highly elevated in the milk of the tumor-bearing breast (1100 +/- 100 ng/ml) and moderately elevated in the milk of the clinically nonaffected breast (700 +/- 50 ng/ml). However, serum CEA levels were within normal range (9.8 +/- 0.5 ng/ml). The various theoretical and practical implications of this finding, including considerations for early breast cancer detection, are discussed.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis*; D002285:Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen