Skip to main content
NCBI home page
British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1993 Jun;67(6):1423–1429. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1993.264

Clinical evaluation of serum tumour marker CA 242 in non-small cell lung cancer.

J L Pujol 1, E H Cooper 1, M Lehmann 1, D A Purves 1, M Dan-Aouta 1, J Midander 1, P Godard 1, F B Michel 1
PMCID: PMC1968478  PMID: 8390291

Abstract

CA 242, a novel tumour carbohydrate antigen present in serum (upper limit of normal values: 20.0 U ml-1), has been measured in a group of 102 pathologically confirmed non-small cell lung cancer patients. The aim of the present prospective study was to identify any relationship between pre-treatment serum CA 242 level and different features of lung cancer including prognosis. Serum CA 242 was measured using the delayed europium lanthanide fluoroimmunometric assay. Sensitivity and specificity were 28.5% and 95.6% respectively. Its level was significantly lower in squamous cell carcinoma in comparison with non-squamous histologies (adenocarcinoma and large cell carcinoma). The CA 242 level was higher in metastatic disease (median: 15.3 U ml-1) in comparison with non-metastatic (median: 7.9 U ml-1; Mann Whitney U test; P < 0.003), and increased significantly from stage I to stage IV. In 50 patients who underwent chemotherapy, the serum CA 242 level was higher in non-responder patients when compared with responders (median: 16.8 U ml-1 and 9.5 U ml-1 respectively; Mann Whitney; P < 0.02). Univariate analysis of the entire population showed serum CA 242 levels were not related to survival. However, patients with unresectable non-small cell lung cancer and elevated CA 242 level proved to have a significantly shorter survival than those with a CA 242 < 20 U ml-1. In Cox's model analysis, stage of the disease and performance status were the only significant determinants of survival. We conclude that a high level of serum CA 242 (1) is significantly related to the stage of disease, (2) predictive of no response to chemotherapy but seems to add weak prognostic information to stage of disease and performance status, the main prognostic determinants of non-small cell lung cancer.

Full text

PDF
1423

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Beck J. R., Shultz E. K. The use of relative operating characteristic (ROC) curves in test performance evaluation. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1986 Jan;110(1):13–20. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Buccheri G. F., Ferrigno D., Sartoris A. M., Violante B., Vola F., Curcio A. Tumor markers in bronchogenic carcinoma. Superiority of tissue polypeptide antigen to carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigenic determinant 19-9. Cancer. 1987 Jul 1;60(1):42–50. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19870701)60:1<42::aid-cncr2820600109>3.0.co;2-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Buccheri G. F., Violante B., Sartoris A. M., Ferrigno D., Curcio A., Vola F. Clinical value of a multiple biomarker assay in patients with bronchogenic carcinoma. Cancer. 1986 Jun 15;57(12):2389–2396. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19860615)57:12<2389::aid-cncr2820571225>3.0.co;2-#. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Carney D. N., De Leij L. Lung cancer biology. Semin Oncol. 1988 Jun;15(3):199–214. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dent P. B., McCulloch P. B., Wesley-James O., MacLaren R., Muirhead W., Dunnett C. W. Measurement of carcinoembryonic antigen in patients with bronchogenic carcinoma. Cancer. 1978 Sep;42(3 Suppl):1484–1491. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(197809)42:3+<1484::aid-cncr2820420819>3.0.co;2-j. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gregor A. Controversies in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Eur J Cancer. 1991;27(3):362–366. doi: 10.1016/0277-5379(91)90546-p. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gronowitz J. S., Bergström R., Nôu E., Påhlman S., Brodin O., Nilsson S., Källander C. F. Clinical and serologic markers of stage and prognosis in small cell lung cancer. A multivariate analysis. Cancer. 1990 Aug 15;66(4):722–732. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19900815)66:4<722::aid-cncr2820660421>3.0.co;2-j. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Haglund C., Lindgren J., Roberts P. J., Kuusela P., Nordling S. Tissue expression of the tumour associated antigen CA242 in benign and malignant pancreatic lesions. A comparison with CA 50 and CA 19-9. Br J Cancer. 1989 Dec;60(6):845–851. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1989.377. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Jørgensen L. G., Hansen H. H., Cooper E. H. Neuron specific enolase, carcinoembryonic antigen and lactate dehydrogenase as indicators of disease activity in small cell lung cancer. Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol. 1989 Jan;25(1):123–128. doi: 10.1016/0277-5379(89)90059-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Muller T., Marshall R. J., Cooper E. H., Watson D. A., Walker D. A., Mearns A. J. The role of serum tumour markers to aid the selection of lung cancer patients for surgery and the assessment of prognosis. Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol. 1985 Dec;21(12):1461–1466. doi: 10.1016/0277-5379(85)90238-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Mulshine J. L., Glatstein E., Ruckdeschel J. C. Treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer. J Clin Oncol. 1986 Nov;4(11):1704–1715. doi: 10.1200/JCO.1986.4.11.1704. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Naruke T., Goya T., Tsuchiya R., Suemasu K. Prognosis and survival in resected lung carcinoma based on the new international staging system. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 1988 Sep;96(3):440–447. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Nilsson O., Johansson C., Glimelius B., Persson B., Nørgaard-Pedersen B., Andrén-Sandberg A., Lindholm L. Sensitivity and specificity of CA242 in gastro-intestinal cancer. A comparison with CEA, CA50 and CA 19-9. Br J Cancer. 1992 Feb;65(2):215–221. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1992.44. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Pasanen P. A., Eskelinen M., Partanen K., Pikkarainen P., Penttilä I., Alhava E. Clinical evaluation of a new serum tumour marker CA 242 in pancreatic carcinoma. Br J Cancer. 1992 May;65(5):731–734. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1992.154. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Rapp E., Pater J. L., Willan A., Cormier Y., Murray N., Evans W. K., Hodson D. I., Clark D. A., Feld R., Arnold A. M. Chemotherapy can prolong survival in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer--report of a Canadian multicenter randomized trial. J Clin Oncol. 1988 Apr;6(4):633–641. doi: 10.1200/JCO.1988.6.4.633. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Salvati F., Antilli A., Cruciani A. R., Pau F., Flore F., Munno R., De Angelis G., Cipri A., Pigorini F. Plasma carcinoembryonic antigen and tissue polypeptide antigen levels in lung cancer: correlation with cell types and stage. Cancer Detect Prev. 1985;8(1-2):111–114. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Tockman M. S., Gupta P. K., Pressman N. J., Mulshine J. L. Considerations in bringing a cancer biomarker to clinical application. Cancer Res. 1992 May 1;52(9 Suppl):2711s–2718s. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Cancer are provided here courtesy of Cancer Research UK

RESOURCES