Premium
Elevated carcinoembryonic antigen levels in the milk of a nursing mother with inoperable breast cancer
Author(s) -
Bartal Arie H.,
Kahana Luna,
Yarom Judith
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19801101)46:9<2091::aid-cncr2820460930>3.0.co;2-d
Subject(s) - medicine , carcinoembryonic antigen , breast cancer , oncology , cancer , obstetrics , gynecology
Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) determinations performed in the milk of a nursing mother with an inoperable breast cancer revealed a 10–15‐fold higher level compared with CEA levels in the milk of healthy nursing women. CEA was highly elevated in the milk of the tumor‐bearing breast (1100 ± 100 ng/ml) and moderately elevated in the milk of the clinically nonaffected breast (700 ± 50 ng/ml). However, serum CEA levels were within normal range (9.8 ± 0.5 ng/ml). The various theoretical and practical implications of this finding, including considerations for early breast cancer detection, are discussed.