title: Clinical evaluation of the simultaneous determination of CA 15-3, CA 125 and sHER2 in breast cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated serum levels of CA 15-3, sHER2 and CA 125, and their usefulness in the detection of metastatic disease in breast cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The levels of CA 15-3, sHER2 and CA 125 tumour markers were determined in 60 patients, 40 with localized and 20 with metastatic breast carcinoma. The control group consisted of 10 healthy women.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that, at the time of diagnosis, serum levels of all three tumour markers were elevated in patients with distant metastases, but of minute importance in the detection of any breast cancer. When the data for the individual markers were combined the overall sensitivity of metastases detection with all three markers improved. In this regard, 90% of patients with distant metastases had an increase in serum level of at least one of tested tumour markers. Similar results were obtained using receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Moreover, using ROC we defined cut-off values for metastasis detection for each of the tested markers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings indicate that measurement of CA 15-3 serum values in conjunction with sHER2 and CA 15-3 can increase sensitivity in metastasis detection.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical Faculty, University of Kragujevac, Serbia. dejan.baskic@gmail.com
authors.forename: Dejan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baskić
authors.forename: Petar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ristić
authors.forename: Snezana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matić
authors.forename: Dragić
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Banković
authors.forename: Suzana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Popović
authors.forename: Nebojsa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arsenijević
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D018394:CA-125 Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018396:Mucin-1 / Q000097:blood*; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000097:blood*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D018394:CA-125 Antigen; D018396:Mucin-1; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human