title: CA 15-3: a prognostic marker in breast cancer.
abstract: CA 15-3 (also known as MUC1) is the most widely used serum marker in breast cancer. MUC1 is a large transmembrane glycoprotein which is frequently overexpressed and aberrantly glycosylated in cancer. Physiologically, MUC1 appears to play a role in cell adhesion and the high levels present in cancer may be causally involved in metastasis. At present the main uses of CA 15-3 are in preclinically detecting recurrent breast cancer and monitoring the treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer. In a prospective study of 368 patients we show that patients with high preoperative levels of CA 15-3 (>30.4 U/mL) had a worse outcome than patients with low levels of the marker. In multivariate analysis CA 15-3 as a prognostic marker was independent of both tumor size and nodal status. Furthermore, in multivariate analysis the prognostic impact of CA 15-3 was stronger than that of tumor size and at least as strong as nodal status. CA 15-3 may thus be the first independent prognostic serum marker in breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. mjduffy@svherc.ucd.ie
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Duffy
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shering
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sherry
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McDermott
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: O'Higgins
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006031:Glycosylation; D006801:Humans; D018396:Mucin-1 / Q000097:blood*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D018396:Mucin-1