BACKGROUND:

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignant tumor in women around the world. The FDA-approved tumor markers are cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and are frequently used for the detection and control of breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE:

To present the current available information on the usefulness of tumor markers CA 15-3 and carcinoembryonic antigen in the detection of metastases and their prognostic value in breast cancer.

METHODOLOGY:

A systematic search of publications in English in the Medline-PubMed database was performed, using the terms: “biomarkers”, “tumor”, “tumor biomarkers”, “marker”, “tumor marker”, “breast neoplasms “,” breast “,” neoplasms “,” cancer “,” mucin-1 “,” ca 15 3 “,” carcinoembryonic antigen “. Original articles, clinical trials, reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyzes, published between March 28, 2015 and March 25, 2020, were selected to determine the usefulness of the CA 15-3 antigen and carcinoembryonic antigen in breast cancer.

RESULTS:

Eleven publications that were relevant to determine the usefulness of tumor markers in breast cancer were selected for the writing of this article.

CONCLUSIONS:

The utility of tumor markers Antigen 15-3 and carcinoembryonic antigen is contradictory, and not fully accepted by oncology associations and international guidelines, however there is evidence that confirms their utility as diagnostic and prognostic markers in breast cancer.