Tumor Markers

We are pioneers in Israel in the field of Tumor Markers and our laboratory was the first to introduce such tests in the country. For the last 20 years we have been performing large studies on various tumor markers, their potential and efficacy for diagnosis, for indicating response to therapy and for detecting recurrence or metastatic spread of the tumor at an earlier stage, thus enabling efficient therapy.

As tumor markers we use certain proteins produced by or secreted from different tumors, which differ from the normal tissues in quality or quantity. These tumor markers are evaluated in the blood of patients and they are used to determine the existence and sites of tumors in the body, to give an evaluation of tumor burden, metastatic spread or response to a certain therapy.

The laboratory is routinely engaged in tumor marker evaluations. To date we perform various tumor marker tests as routine tests: CA 15-3 for breast cancer, CA 125 for ovarian cancer, CA 19-9 for pancreatic cancer, CEA for colon cancer and PSA for prostate cancer (15000-30000 tests per year). With the results of these tests physicians can determine whether patients are responding to certain treatments or whether they should change the treatment regimes, and they have additional information which helps them in diagnosing various tumors and shows them earlier the recurrence of the disease and enables them to treat patients earlier and more effectively.

We are presently studying the efficiency of several new tumor markers, such as CA 72-4 for stomach cancer, CYFRA 21-1 and TPS for lung cancer or for head and neck cancer and TPS alone for the proliferation rate and activity of various cancers. In addition, we are now evaluating the CYFRA-21-1 marker for bladder carcinoma. Other new tumor markers being evaluated recently are S-100 for melanoma and Her-2/Neu in sera of breast cancer patients.