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A member asked:
Should ca 199, ca 15.3 and others done yearly to detect any cancerous changes early on ?
4 doctors weighed in across 3 answers
Would be unwise: People who study these things have looked at these and figured out the economics and the human cost and benefits. The annual pelvic is the main screen for curable ovarian cancer; common pancreatic cancer is so seldom curable that screening is probably senseless. To operate the huge number of people with high markers but no cancer would be a disaster. Most agree it would not be wise.
Answered 11/2/2015
4.9k views
Tumor markers: Early detection of cancers with blood test by tumor markers ( cancer antigens ) is not possible in most of the cancers as we do not have such markers yet , yes in future . Psa detects relatively early stage of prostatic cancer . Most of them time used to monitor recurrence of cancer .Ca 199 for pancreas , ca 15.3 for breast cancers.
Answered 9/8/2013
4.9k views
In a nutshell:: No. These are not screening tests for the normal population. Only in select patients with humongously increased risk like certain mutation carriers or people with very strong family history these markers may be considered and even then there are no data to my knowledge that shows it decreases chances of dying of cancer. Talk to your doc about age and risk appropriate screening tests for you.
Answered 11/23/2013
4.9k views
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