Preoperative CA15.3 serum levels and cellular proliferation in patients with infiltrating ductal carcinomas of the breast

Abstract Objective To study the possible correlations between the preoperative CA15.3 serum levels and the cellular proliferation, measured by S-phase (SP), in patients having infiltrating ductal carcinomas (IDC) of the breast Material and methods The study group included 79 patients with an age ranged between 39 and 86 yrs (64.8 ± 11.8). Ploidy and S-phase were measured by cytometry (Fascam. Beckton Dikinson. USA) in fresh simples Results Using as cut-off for SP the value of 7 %, which represents the median obtained previously in 321 patients with IDC (r: 0.8-51.2; 9.3 ± 7.9; percentiles 25 y 75; 4.3 y 11.8 %), we can observed that the antigenic levels were higher (p: 0.015) in the tumors with low SP. These same behavior was noted when 30U/ml was used as cut-off for CA15.3. Likewise, the levels of the tumor marker increased significantly (p: 0.007) when the SP moved from Conclusion a) Release of CA15.3 happens when SP increases to rise the 7.1 % value, to decrease later although that goes on increasing, and b) The same behaviour of this marker with the S-phase was observed in tumors without axillary involvement, as well as in aneuploid carcinomas.