Findings from C. Papila and co-authors broaden understanding of breast cancer
2009 JUL 9 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to recent research from Istanbul, Turkey, "The purpose of this study was to determine HER-2/neu in the serum of patients with solid tumors and to investigate its potential usefulness in predicting the clinical course of the disease. At the same time, we compared the ability of serum HER-2/neu, CA15.3, CA12-5, CA19-9, carcino embryonic antigen (CEA), and alpha-feto-protein (AFP) in breast, colorectal, and lung cancer patients." "Forty, thirty-six, and twenty-three patients with lung, colon and breast cancer were included in this study, respectively. Serum levels of HER-2/neu, CA15.3, CA12-5, CA19-9, CEA, and AFP were measured. Her-2 neu levels were significantly higher in the breast cancer groups than colorectal and lung cancer and controls groups (P < 0.01). There is no significant difference when compared with others groups (P > 0.05). There was a positive correlation between the HER-2/neu and CA15-3 values in breast cancer groups. We found 0.75(0.59-0.90) for Her-2/neu from the area under the curve (AUC). P-value for breast cancer is 0.003, and we discovered that 9 ng/ml was the best inersection point. In this situation, we calculated that sensitivity was 65.2%, specificity was 100%, positive predictive value was 100%, negative predictive value 75.8%, and accuracy was 83.4%. These findings indicate that serum HER2/neu levels are clinically valuable in monitoring metastatic breast cancer and non-small cell lung cancer patients. Prognosis of breast cancer provides an additional value over the commonly used CA15-3 test. Measurements of levels of serum HER-2/neu provide prognostic and predictive information to the clinician and can especially be used for monitoring metastatic breast cancer patients," wrote C. Papila and colleagues. The researchers concluded: "Further clinical validation is needed to confirm these findings." Papila and colleagues published their study in Medical Oncology (Clinical significance and prognostic value of serum sHER-2/neu levels in patients with solid tumors. Medical Oncology, 2009;26(2):151-156). For additional information, contact H. Uzun, Cerrahpasa Tip Fak, Temel Bilimler Biokimya Anabilim Dali, TR-34303 Istanbul, Turkey. Publisher contact information for the journal Medical Oncology is: Humana Press Inc., 999 Riverview Drive Suite 208, Totowa, NJ 07512, USA. Keywords: Turkey, Istanbul, Breast Cancer, Breast Carcinoma, Colorectal, Gastroenterology, Lung Cancer, Lung Neoplasms, Oncology, Solid Cancers, Solid Carcinomas, Women's Health. This article was prepared by Women's Health Weekly editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2009, Women's Health Weekly via NewsRx.com.
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