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Introduction Acute presentations of COVID-19 infection vary, ranging from asymptomatic carriage through to severe clinical manifestations including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Longer term sequelae of COVID-19 infection includes lung fibrosis in a proportion of patients. Krebs von den Lungen 6 (KL-6) is a mucin like glycoprotein that has been proposed as a marker of pulmonary epithelial cell injury. We sought to determine whether KL-6 was a marker of 1) the severity of acute COVID-19 infection, or 2) the persistence of symptoms/radiological abnormalities at medium term follow up. Methods Prospective single centre observational study. Results Convalescent KL-6 levels were available for 93 patients (male 63%, mean age 55.8 years) who attended an 12-week follow up appointment after being admitted to hospital with COVID-19. For 67 patients a baseline KL-6 result was available for comparison. There was no significant correlations between baseline KL-6 and the admission CXR severity score or clinical severity NEWS score. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the baseline KL-6 level and an initial requirement for oxygen on admission or the severity of acute infection as measured at 28 days. There was no significant difference in the 12-week KL-6 level and the presence or absence of subjective breathlessness but patients with abnormal CT scans at 12 weeks had significantly higher convalescent KL-6 levels compared to the remainder of the cohort (median 1101 IU/ml vs 409 IU/ml). Conclusions The association between high KL-6 levels at 12 weeks and persisting CT abnormalities (GGO/fibrosis), is a finding that requires further exploration. Whether KL-6 may help differentiate those patients with persisting dyspnoea due to complications rather than deconditioning or dysfunctional breathing alone, is an important future research question.

CA 125 and cancer-associated serum antigen (CASA) were measured prior to second-look laparotomy (SLL) to investigate their predictive and prognostic values in 93 patients treated for epithelial ovarian cancer FIGO stage II, III, or IV. Residual tumor was diagnosed at the SLL in 58 patients (62%). The optimal cutoff level was 15 U/ml for CA 125 and 8 U/ml for CASA. Using these levels, the sensitivity for detection of residual tumor was 40% for CA 125 and 22% for CASA. The combined use of the markers resulted in a sensitivity of 47% (diagnostic gain 6.9%; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.14-13.44%). Microscopic tumor volumes were equally diagnosed by CASA and CA 125. The independent prognostic value of CA 125 (RR = 2.6; 95% CI, 2.0-3.2) and CASA (RR = 2.2; CI, 1.5-2.9) was established by means of Cox regression analysis of the covariation between survival, age, FIGO stage, histopathology, tumor grade, and bulk of residual tumor at the primary operation and CA 125 and CASA before the SLL. In conclusion, we found that CASA could supplement CA 125 measurement prior to SLL and reduce the number of SLLs. Furthermore, CASA had an independent prognostic value for survival which may be used together with other information in the planning of further treatment of the individual patient.

A total of 209 postsurgical breast cancer patients were prospectively monitored with simultaneous serum level estimations of CA 15,3, mucin-like carcinoma-associated antigen (MCA), tumor polypeptide antigen (TPA), and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA); 141 (67.5%) were free of recurrence and 68 (32.5%) developed metastases during the follow-up. The mean values of tested tumor markers differed significantly in those with progressive disease compared with those free of disease recurrence. The sensitivity of tumor markers were CA 15-3, 68.2%; CEA, 34.1%; MCA, 72.7%; and TPA, 72.7%. The combination of CA 15-3 with TPA or MCA with TPA showed a trend for improved sensitivity of both markers (p = 0.06), with no specific loss of specificity (p = 0.11). The addition of CEA to CA 15-3 or MCA does not provide additional information for clinical evaluation. Patients with elevated tumor marker determinations had significantly shorter survival than those with values within the normal range. Two serial, progressively increasing values of tumor markers during the follow-up strongly predict recurrence. This study indicates that the comeasurement of CA 15-3 with TPA or MCA with TPA is justifiable in monitoring breast cancer patients postoperatively. Am J Clin Oncol