Serum and immunohistochemical studies of NCC‐ST‐439 in breast cancer

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Abstract
It has been thought that NCC‐ST‐439 antigen (ST‐439) is a tumor‐related carbohydrate antigen. The authors conducted serum and immunohistochemical studies to investigate the clinical significance of ST‐439 in breast cancer. The level of serum ST‐439 was elevated in advanced and recurrent breast cancers. In comparison with CEA and CA15–3, ST‐439 was superior in sensitivity but inferior in specificity to these markers. The level of serum ST‐439 showed no correlation with the levels of CEA or CA15–3. In the combination assay of these three markers, 80.6% of recurrent cases and 33.8% of primary cases were positive. Immunohistochemically, the expression of ST‐439 was observed in 28.1% of noncancerous mammary duct epithelium and in 38.1% of the cancerous portion. From the above, we concluded that ST‐439 was a tumor‐related antigen and could be a tumor marker with high sensitivity in breast cancer.