CA 15-3
and Eva Rudolf-Müller, doctorEva Rudolf-Müller is a freelance writer in the medical team. She studied human medicine and newspaper sciences and has repeatedly worked in both areas - as a doctor in the clinic, as a reviewer, and as a medical journalist for various specialist journals. She is currently working in online journalism, where a wide range of medicine is offered to everyone.
More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.The tumor marker CA 15-3 (short for cancer antigen 15-3) is a laboratory value that increases in certain cancers. An example of such a disease is breast cancer (breast cancer). Read here what CA 15-3 exactly is, in which diseases the tumor marker is increased and what significance it has!
What exactly is the CA 15-3?
CA 15-3 is a so-called glycoprotein, so it consists of sugar and protein. It is formed in the mucous membrane cells, which are then released into the blood. Only small amounts of the glycoprotein are found in the blood serum of healthy patients.
Standard value CA 15-3
In healthy people, the CA 15-3 value is below 31 enzyme units per milliliter (<31 U / ml).
When is the tumor marker CA 15-3 increased?
As the name tumor marker suggests, the CA 15-3 increases in certain cancers. These include above all breast cancer (breast cancer) and ovarian cancer (ovarian cancer), but also malignant tumors of the pancreas, liver, stomach and bronchi.
Apart from that, elevated CA 15-3 values are also found in some benign diseases, for example in:
- Inflammation of the liver (hepatitis)
- Cirrhosis of the liver
- Kidney failure
- Diseases of the bronchi
- benign changes in the mammary gland (for example, fibroadenoma or mastopathy)
How useful is the determination of CA 15-3?
CA 15-3 has a sensitivity of only 5 to 30 percent in breast cancer in the early stages of the disease. This means that only 5 to 30 out of 100 women with breast cancer can actually detect the malignant tumor using the tumor marker. However, the height of the tumor mark is related to the size and stage of the tumor and thus enables a more precise assessment.
In addition, the sensitivity increases if the doctor also determines the tumor marker CEA and assesses the values as a whole. The determination of CA 15-3 only makes sense as a follow-up examination in the case of known cancer. The oncologist can use it to assess the success of a therapy, for example. However, in order to be able to say reliably how the values will develop, the same measuring method must be used in the laboratory when determining CA 15-3 again. Otherwise the values cannot be compared.
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