Tumor markers for cancer detection. I

We report a prospective study aimed at assessing the value of serum marker determinations in a supposedly healthy population to detect cancer and to identify individuals at high risk. We analyzed a group of 1,611 supposedly healthy subjects attending a cancer detection center, over a 1-5 year period and a control group of 100 cancer patients. Repeated determinations of the following markers were made: CEA, AFP, HCG, beta-HCG, beta 2-M, ferritin, beta 1-SP, all by radioimmunoassay. In the literature, marker determinations are considered not to be useful for cancer screening; in spite of this, we determined "normal" and "suspicious" levels for each marker and were able to define a group "at risk" that may harbor an early cancer (representing 23.6% of the total) and a "normal" group. The cancer detection rate was 45 0/00 (17/378) in the risk group and 3.2 0/00 in the "normal" one (4/1233). Our data show that markers could play a role in cancer screening.