Objective: To compare expression level of serum tumor associated materials (TAM) with several conventional serum tumor biomarkers, eg., carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen19-9 (CA19-9), carbohydrate antigen 15-3 (CA15-3), alpha-fetoprotein(AFP), in selected solid tumors. Methods: Patients diagnosed histologically or cytologically with liver, breast, esophageal, gastric, colorectal or pancreatic cancers were enrolled into this study. After diagnosis, the level of TAM was determined by chemical colorimetry, and levels of conventional tumor markers was measured by chemiluminescence methods. Results: A total of 560 patients were enrolled into this study. No statistically significant difference was detected in TAM and the above mentioned tumor biomarkers in terms of their positivity and negativity ( P>0. 05). Conclusions: Detection of TAM in liver, breast, esophageal, gastric, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer patients demonstrates a good accordance with CEA, CA199, CA153, and AFP, thus suggesting that further study is warranted to verify whether TAM could be a surrogate for these conventional biomarkers.

Objective: To explore the associations of serum tumor associated material (TAM) with other common tumor markers like carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), carbohydrate antigen19-9 (CA19-9) and its clinical application in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Methods: A total of 87 patients were enrolled into this study, all with histologically or cytologically confirmed NSCLC. With the method of chemical colorimetry, the level of TAM was determined and compared, while chemiluminescence was used to measure the levels of common tumor markers. Results: The level of TAM decreased after chemotherapy compared with before chemotherapy when CT or MRI scans showed disease control. Furthermore, it increased when disease progessed and there was no statistically significant difference in monitoring of TAM and common tumor markers (P>0.05). Conclusions: Detecting TAM in NSCLC patients has a higher sensitivity and specificity, so it can be used as an indicator for clinical monitoring of lung cancer chemotherapy.