Clinically Meaningful Use of Blood Tumor Markers in Oncology

Table 1

Commonly used TMs and associated malignancies.

TM	Type of malignancy	Differential diagnosis	Prognosis/staging	Treatment monitoring/surveillance
Tg	Thyroid	x		x
Calcitonin	Thyroid (medullary)	x		x
β2M (beta-2-microglobulin)	Multiple myeloma, CLL		x
CEA	CRC, pancreatic, gastric/gastroesophageal AC, esophageal AC, NSCLC AC, breast, endometrial, thyroid, c-cell			x
CA 125	Ovarian, breast, omental carcinomatosis	x		x
HE4	Ovarian, NSCLC, endometrial	x		x
Beta-HCG	GCT, choriocarcinoma, urothelial	x	x	x
AFP (alpha-feto protein)	HCC, GCT	x	x	x
CA 15-3	Breast, NSCLC AC		x	x
CA 19-9	Pancreatic, biliary tract, upper GI		x	x
CA 72-4	Upper GI, mucinous ovarian			x
CYFRA 21-1	NSCLC, esophageal, HNSCC, pancreatic, bladder	x		x
S100	Malignant melanoma			x
NSE	SCLC, NET, neuroblastoma	x		x
ProGRP	SCLC, thyroid medullary	x	x	x
Chromogranin A	SCLC, NET	x		x
PSA/free PSA	Prostate	x	x	x
SCCA	Cervix SCC, NSCLC SCC, esophageal SCC, HNSCC	x
Ig (immunoglobulin)	Multiple myeloma			x
LC (light chains)	Multiple myeloma	x		x
Her-2-neu	Breast cancer			x
TK	Multiple myeloma, CLL	x	x	x

AC, adenocarcinoma; SCC, squamous cell carcinoma; CLL, chronic lymphocytic leukemia; HNSCC, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; GCT, germ-cell tumor; GI, gastrointestinal; NET, neuroendocrine tumors; TK, thymidine kinase; Tg, thyroglobulin.