Significance of measurement of tumor marker in primary breast cancer

We investigated a prognosis in the presence or absence of preoperative marker abnormality for 371 cases with primary breast cancer that we experienced in our department this time. 60 (16%) of 371 cases showed the abnormality of the tumor marker and 25 (41.7%) of 60 patients had a recurrence. The positive rate of the marker was 8.1% in CA 15 3, 6.7% in CEA, 4.1% in NCC ST 439, and each rate of recurrence was 56.7%, 48.0%, 33.3%. Rate of recurrence in the negative cases was 12.7%, 13.9, 15.0% respectively and recognized a significant difference statistically (p