Comparison of serum tumor associated material (TAM) with conventional biomarkers in cancer patients

Abstract

Objective: To compare expression level of serum tumor associated materials (TAM) with several conventional serum tumor biomarkers, eg., carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen19-9 (CA19-9), carbohydrate antigen 15-3 (CA15-3), alpha-fetoprotein(AFP), in selected solid tumors. Methods: Patients diagnosed histologically or cytologically with liver, breast, esophageal, gastric, colorectal or pancreatic cancers were enrolled intothis study. After diagnosis, the level of TAM was determined by chemical colorimetry, andlevels of conventional tumor markers was measured by chemiluminescence methods. Results: A total of 560 patients were enrolled into this study. No statistically significant difference was detected in TAM and the above mentioned tumor biomarkers in terms of their positivity and negativity (P>0. 05). Conclusions: Detection of TAM in liver, breast, esophageal, gastric, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer patients demonstrates a good accordance with CEA, CA199, CA153, and AFP, thus suggesting that further study is warranted to verifywhether TAM could be a surrogate for these conventional biomarkers.