[Significance of the TPS cytokeratin marker in the postoperative follow up of colorectal carcinoma patients]

Examination of tumour markers conducive to follow up of the patients with colorectal carcinoma.The tumour markers were examined in the population of patients with primarily established and histologically verified colorectal adenocarcinoma.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.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.