Usefulness of Tumor Marker CA 242 in the Diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer

Yi, Sun Young; Jung, Hye Kyung; Son, Hye Young; Lee, Han Chu

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS
CA 242, a sialylated carbohydrate epitope, is closely related, but not identical to CA 19-9. It has been proposed as a new tumor marker for pancreatic cancer. We studied the serum level of CA 242 to evaluate its significance in diagnosing pancreatic cancer. METHODS: We measured the serum levels of CA 242 and CA 19-9 in 41 patients with pancreatic cancer and 51 patients with benign liver, pancreatic, and biliary disease. Then, the results were compared. RESULTS: Overall sensitivity of CA 242 assay was 82.9% and the specificity was 90.2%. CA 19-9 assay had a higher sensitivity (87.8%) than CA242 assay, but the specificity was only 56%. In comparison by receiver operating characteristics analysis, sensitivitiy of CA 242 assay was superior to that of CA 19-9 assay within 20% of false positive rate. The CA 242 level was elevated in 3%, 12.5% and 50% of patients with benign liver, pancreatic and biliary disease, respectively. The corresponding figures for CA 19-9 were 48%, 33.3% and 50%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor marker CA 242 shows higher specificity than tumor marker CA 19-9 when using the recommended cut-off levels in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. CA 242 seems to be a new useful tumor marker for pancreatic cancer.