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The main use of CA19-9 is therefore to see whether a pancreatic tumor is secreting it; if that is the case, then the levels should fall when the tumor is treated, and they may rise again if the disease recurs. [2] Therefore it is useful as a surrogate marker for relapse. In people with pancreatic masses, CA19-9 can be useful in distinguishing ...
Reference ranges (reference intervals) for blood tests are sets of values used by a health professional to interpret a set of medical test results from blood samples. Reference ranges for blood tests are studied within the field of clinical chemistry (also known as "clinical biochemistry", "chemical pathology" or "pure blood chemistry"), the ...
No screening test is wholly specific, and a high level of tumor marker can still be found in benign tumors. The only tumor marker currently used in screening is PSA (prostate-specific antigen). Diagnostics; Tumor markers alone can't be used for diagnostic purposes, due to lack of sensitivity and specificity. [4]
The standard definition of a reference range for a particular measurement is defined as the interval between which 95% of values of a reference population fall into, in such a way that 2.5% of the time a value will be less than the lower limit of this interval, and 2.5% of the time it will be larger than the upper limit of this interval, whatever the distribution of these values.
This tumor marker can be detected in the blood, saliva, or urine. [17] The possibility of identifying an effective biomarker for early cancer diagnosis has recently been questioned, in light of the high molecular heterogeneity of tumors observed by next-generation sequencing studies.
Consequently, CEA is usually present at very low levels in the blood of healthy adults (about 2–4 ng/mL). [2] However, the serum levels are raised in some types of cancer, which means that it can be used as a tumor marker in clinical tests. Serum levels can also be elevated in heavy smokers. [3]
Tumors may be graded on four-tier, three-tier, or two-tier scales, depending on the institution and the tumor type. The histologic tumor grade score along with the metastatic (whole-body-level cancer-spread) staging are used to evaluate each specific cancer patient, develop their individual treatment strategy and to predict their prognosis.
While it cannot be used as a sole means of diagnosing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, it is a marker for tracking tumor burden in those diagnosed by other means. The normal range is approximately between 140 and 280 U/L [ 50 ] but the clinical interpretation will depend upon the patient's symptoms.