Tumour Markers
Common Tumour Markers:
- Oncofetal Antigens
- Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)
- Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG)
- Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA)
- elevations in GI cancers, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, and lung cancer
- increases with age and due to smoking
- Carbohydrate Antigens (mucins/carbohydrate-rich glycoproteins)
- Cancer Antigen 125 (CA-125)
- Elevated with ovarian carcinomas and endometrial cancer
- Cancer Antigen 19-9
- Elevated with pancreatic carcinomas, other cancers (colorectal, GI, and lung)
- Cancer Antigen 15-3
- Elevated with breast carcinomas and adenocarcinomas (benign)
- Cancer Antigen 125 (CA-125)
- Beta-2 Microglobulin (B2M)
- Associated with blood and bone marrow cancers (MM, CLL, B-cell lymphoma)
- Elevated in some inflammatory disorders
- Thyroglobulin (Tg)
- Associated with thyroid cancers
- Catecholamine Metabolites
- Vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) is most common
- Associated with neural crest tumours and neuroblastomas
- Homovanillic acid (HVA)
- Associated with neural crest tumours and neuroblastomas
- Vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) is most common
Limitations
- Hook Effect
- Non-linearity of dilutions
- Heterophile antibodies