Correlation between Serum CA 15-3 and Nodal Involvement in Carcinoma of the Breast

Elevated preoperative CA 15-3 level is directly related to tumor burden and independent prognostic factors for breast cancer. The importance of elevated CA 15-3 level is very significant in evaluating a case of breast tumor. To evaluate the correlation between elevated serum CA 15-3 level with axillary nodal involvement this cross-sectional study was done in the Department of Surgery, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh from January 2019 to June 2019. In this study total 50 women of diagnosed carcinoma of the breast were enrolled according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Serum CA 15-3 was measured in the morning of operation and all patients underwent MRM by single surgeon and involvement of axillary lymph node on histology was recorded. Among the sample most of the patients were between 41-50 years of ages and ductal carcinoma was the most prevalent type. Axillary nodal involvement was 72.0% and average number of lymph node involved was 5.25±5.96. Serum CA15-3 levels was significantly higher in nodal involved patients than those without lymph node involvement, which was statistically significant (p<0.05). But higher number of patient with normal CA15-3 level are found to have lymph node metastasis, and this data was not statistically significant (p>0.05). So, elevated CA 15-3 level has significant positive predictive value but it has no significant negative predictive value for nodal involvement.