Special remarks:

The DEMEDITEC CA 15-3 RIA is an in vitro test for the quantitative determination of DF3 antibody-defined antigen, encoded by the MUC 1 gene, in serum and plasma of patients previously treated for stage II or stage III breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women in the United States. It is estimated that approximately 184,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed each year and that approximately 44,000 women will die of the disease. One of every nine women in the U.S. will develop breast cancer and approximately 30% of women who have this malignancy will die of the disease. Metastatic disease may be present at the time of initial diagnosis and can occur at any time following primary therapy. Up to 70% of patients with metastases will respond to systemic treatment with cytotoxic drugs or endocrine therapy; therefore, early detection of recurrence is important to patient management. The median survival following diagnosis of recurrent disease is approximately 2 years, but may range from a few months to decades.
In patients previously treated for stage II or stage III breast cancer, early detection of recurrence cannot be readily accomplished by routine clinical or diagnostic studies alone. The use of a circulating serum tumor marker assay, such as DEMEDITEC CA 15-3 RIA, can be useful in the identification of these patients.