Usefulness of Traditional Serum Biomarkers for Management of Breast Cancer Patients

Table 1

Current recommendations edited by international scientific organizations for the use of serum cancer biomarkers in clinical oncology.

Expert panel	Recommendation	Year of publication	Reference
ASCO	The use of CA15-3 and CEA is not recommended for routine surveillance of patients with breast cancer after primary therapy	2013	[52]
ESMO	Serum tumor markers (such as CA15-3 and/or CEA), if initially elevated, may be helpful in monitoring response, particularly in the case of nonmeasurable disease. However, a change in tumor markers alone should not be used as the only determinant for treatment decisions	2012	[53]
ACR	Localizing “occult” disease especially in the presence of clinical indicators such as elevated tumor markers	2012	[54]
EANM	Establishing and localizing disease sites as a cause for elevated serum markers (e.g., colorectal, thyroid, ovarian, cervix, melanoma, breast, and germ-cell tumours)	2010	[55]
NACB	CEA and CA15-3 are useful for therapy monitoring especially in patients with nonevaluable disease	2008	[56]
EGTM	CA15-3 and CEA are the most useful serum markers in patients with breast cancer. Serial determinations of these markers are useful in assessing prognosis, early detection of relapse (metastasis), and therapy monitoring	2005	[57]