Tumor marker or tumor marker, is produced by tumor tissue itself can reflect the existence of cancer and cancer of chemical substances or closely related to the existence of material. Tumor markers in tumor diagnosis of the importance of the already widely recognized, but also in recent years, oncologists who are eager to study. Detection of tumor markers not only in tumor diagnosis, transfer, efficacy evaluation and prognosis, etc. is of great significance, but also for tumor markers in continuous dynamic monitoring also contribute to benign and malignant lesions of the identification, for the monitoring of precancerous lesions is also of great significance.
An ideal tumor marker should possess the following conditions:
(1) a high degree of specificity, a major role in specific tumor;
(2) high sensitivity, even small tumors can also show the quantity of blood markers;
(3) reduction in tumor cell death directly affect the blood levels of markers;
(4) The method is simple, its effect can be repeated.
Markers of breast cancer may be applied to 10 categories, more than 20 kinds. More commonly used blood markers are carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), ferritin, human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), calcitonin, CA15-3 and so on.
There is as yet has found a high degree of sensitivity and specificity can be used as markers in early diagnosis of breast cancer, so check the blood tumor markers of breast cancer diagnosis may help, but still can not serve as a basis for diagnosis, should be the proper use of clinical and correctly treat tumor marker test results. However, actively looking for early stage breast cancer, especially breast cancer with high sensitivity and specificity of the markers has become an important future direction for breast cancer research.