Clinical Significance

CA15-3 (MUC-1) is a glycoprotein with a molecular weight of about 400KD. The antigenic determinant of CA15-3 is partly sugar and partly polypeptide. In the serum of breast cancer patients, CA15-3 can be significantly increased in 30% to 50% of patients, and the increase in patients with metastatic lesions can reach 80%. It is often used to observe the recurrence of breast cancer after treatment and to monitor the metastasis of breast cancer. CA15-3 can also be combined with CA125 for early diagnosis of ovarian cancer recurrence; when combined with CEA, it can improve the sensitivity and specificity of early diagnosis of breast cancer. In other malignant tumors such as lung cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, etc, serum CA15-3 can also be increased.