Aim: Examination of tumour markers conducive to follow up of the patients with colorectal carcinoma.
Material and methods: The tumour markers were examined in the population of patients with primarily established and histologically verified colorectal adenocarcinoma.
Results: The resection therapy resulted in the decrease in post-operative CEA levels. There were no changes in pre- and post-operative CA 19-9 levels; unlike with post-operative TPS levels having been significantly increased, probably due to reparation processes resulting from the surgery. It can be concluded that pre- and post-operative CEA levels are the most suitable markers to check the effect of surgery. With a 95%-specificity for the establishment of recidives, the highest sensitivity was reached with TPS (83%); the sensitivities of the classical tumour markers CEA and CA 19-9 were significantly lower (41% and 25%, respectively). The results should be interpreted with caution due to a small number of relapses regarding a short follow up and rather local-regional character of the recidives.
Conclusion: However, TPS seems to be a promising marker for the follow up of the patients with colorectal carcinoma. Thus, an ideal combination seems to be that of CEA and TPS.