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)
• 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

Limitations

• Hook Effect
• Non-linearity of dilutions
• Heterophile antibodies