[CEA and early detection of relapse in breast cancer subtypes: Comparison with CA 15-3]

This retrospective study evaluates the interest of CEA measurement for early detection of breast cancer recurrences. Among 804 patients with invasive breast cancer, we selected 97 patients without recurrence (WR) for 5 years or more, 32 with a local recurrence (LR) and 131 with at least one distant metastasis (DM). Elevated CEA and CA 15-3 levels (>3.1 μg/L and >26 kU/L respectively) were found in 6 % and 22 % of patients with RL respectively and in 49 % and 69 % of patients with DM. Both CEA and CA 15-3 retained a significant value in predicting DM by univariate and multivariate analysis. Higher sensitivity of CEA and CA 15-3 were found in tumors with positive hormonal receptor status. CEA and CA 15-3 levels at DM were raised respectively in 23 and 65 % of the triple negative group, 58 and 75 % of the luminal, 56 and 78 % of the luminal-HER2 and 50 and 30 % of HER2-enriched group (P=0.0094 and 0.0252 respectively). The combination of CEA and CA 15-3 increased CA 15-3 sensitivity in especially luminal and HER2-enriched groups. In conclusion, elevated CA 15-3 and CEA levels at initial diagnosis of recurrence were found to be associated with hormonal receptor status and breast cancer subtypes. The combination of CEA and CA 15-3 appeared useful especially luminal and HER2-enriched groups.