CA125 and CA15-3 tumor markers are closely associated with disease activity in a patient with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
A 67-year-old woman suffered from right supraclavicular and axillary lymph node swelling, fever and a cough. She was diagnosed with a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma from the results of a lymph node biopsy done at a local hospital. Her CA125 and CA15-3 tumor markers were high. When she was admitted to our hospital, we determined that the lymphoma had invaded her lung, spleen and bone marrow; thus we diagnosed her as clinical stage IV BN+M+ with International Prognostic Index as high risk. We instituted CHOP chemotherapy combined with rituximab. After 6 courses of CHOP and 8 of rituximab, the patient gained complete remission. The markers returned to normal one after another in order of LDH, CA125, sIL-2R, and CA15-3. Several recent reports have shown that CA125 values are well associated with the clinical stage and prognosis of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). However, there are few reports about CA15-3 related to lymphoma. Here we report a case in which the CA125 and CA15-3 markers were well associated with the disease activity of NHL; therefore, indicating that these markers are useful for an initial diagnosis of the disease.
