Abstract

TERESA ROMERO, G. de; CASADO VICENTE, V.  and  JIMENO CARRUEZ, A.. Clinical use of tumour markers in Primary Health Care. Medifam [online]. 2002, vol.12, n.1, pp.13-37. ISSN 1131-5768.

Cancer in Spain, as in the rest of developed countries, is the second cause of death, following cardiovascular pathologies, and the first one considering Potentially Lost Life Years. Tumour Markers (TM) show up as a useful tool in Primary Health Care when looking for solutions in the three steps of prevention and when searching for useful screening and follow-up methods, even though their effectivity and efficiency in daily clinical practice is still far from being cleared out. Along this article we critically review the existing evidence on the recommendations for the use of TM for screening, diagnosis and follow-up of four of the most relevant tumours in our daily clinical practice (colon, ovarian, breast and prostate), concluding that, on one hand, there is little evidence supporting their use for cancer screening, and, on the other hand, there seems to be enough evidence to support their use for the follow-up of some of these tumours.

Keywords : Tumour Markers; Mass Screening; Diagnosis; Follow-up; Primary Health Care; Evidence Based Medicine.