Significance of tumor markers in lung cancer.

The objective was to test the utility of the cytokeratins CYFRA 21-1, tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS), Neuron specific enolase (NSE) and Carcino Embryonic antigen (CEA) in patients with lung cancer and in the pleural fluid of the patients with lung cancer and also the predicting ability of these tumor markers with respect to the histological types [including non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC)] and pathological stages. 40 normal subjects and 222 cases of histological proven lung cancer were studied. The findings suggest that TPS and CYFRA 21-1, are useful serum markers for the diagnosis of NSCLC and NSE seems to be useful tumor marker for monitoring course of patients especially SCLC. The combined use of these cytokeratin markers TPS and CYFRA 21-1 may provide additional information for prognosis.