Blood tumor markers are a powerful basis for judging the efficacy and prognosis of malignant tumor treatment and choosing the plan, but it can only be used as an auxiliary tool. If tumor markers are found to be elevated during physical examination, don’t be too panic because some tumor markers may also rise when there are inflammation in the body or certain chronic disease attacks, and further examination is needed for differential diagnosis. Elevated tumor markers may not necessarily mean cancer. Tumor markers are substances that are produced (or elevated) by the body in response to tumor cells and can indicate the existence of tumor. Elevated tumor markers may be caused by a variety of factors. For example, AFP may be elevated in pregnancy, active hepatitis and reproductive tumors, in addition to primary liver cancer; sometimes there may be false positives depending on the testing instruments or reagents, which should be determined clinically. Therefore, elevated tumor markers do not necessarily mean that you have cancer. Not every cancer patient has high tumor markers. Many malignant tumors have elevated markers earlier than clinical symptoms, which has caused people to be alerted, and some early cases have been detected and treated timely to obtain good results. However, it is worth noting that not every cancer patient will have elevated tumor markers. Some clinical patients with diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer have always had normal CA125 and no significant changes before and after surgery. There are several types of tumor markers that are more sensitive, for example, 70%-90% of primary liver cancers have elevated AFP, and the overall positive rate of PSA in prostate cancer is about 70%. It helps in the early detection of these two tumors, but there is no 100% sensitive tumor marker. For those who have mild elevation of a single marker, there is no need to panic. If possible, try to review all the commonly used markers. Once a malignant tumor exists in the body, there may be several abnormal markers. If the value is maintained at the critical level of the upper reference value after the review, it is not significant. However, there are several types of cases that should be paid special attention: First, a single test is particularly significantly elevated, several times the upper limit of the normal value. Secondly, repeatedly, the value is dynamically and continuously elevated. Third, there is a family history of tumor screening with increased tumor markers. In the first two cases, the most common disease of the marker is checked first. For example, if CA724 is elevated, it can be checked for gastrointestinal tract diseases first, and if there is no abnormality in the gastrointestinal tract, liver, esophagus, breast, gynecology, etc. should also be checked. Those with familial genetic history who have elevated markers must be reviewed and followed up even if there are no signs and symptoms. Tumor marker screening should be performed for high-risk groups who are over 60 years old, have family history of tumor, long-term chronic hepatitis B patients or high tumor incidence. Tumor markers can determine treatment effect and prognosis Tumor markers are widely used to determine the efficacy of malignant tumors and become one of the powerful bases for choosing treatment plans. The level of markers is closely related to the malignancy degree, metastasis and recurrence of tumors. In clinical practice, the marker level after the initial treatment has achieved efficacy is used as the specific “individual reference value” to judge the efficacy according to its dynamic change. If the marker level decreases to within the reference value or decreases by more than 95%, the treatment is effective; if it decreases but still remains above the reference value, it indicates residual tumor and/or metastasis; if it decreases to within the reference value and then increases again after a period of time, it indicates recurrence or metastasis. The detection of markers helps doctors to select individualized treatment plan for tumor patients in a timely manner. The same hospital should be chosen for long-term follow-up monitoring Unlike CT and ultrasound results that can be mutually recognized in the same city, it is recommended that patients who need follow-up should choose the same hospital or the same clinical laboratory as much as possible. Because the international standardization of tumor markers has not been perfected yet, the results of the same marker may be different when different hospitals use different methods and reagents to test the same marker; the test results obtained by different manufacturers of testing reagents and instruments may also be different; different antibody markers used for reagents, different calibrators, and differences in selectivity of analytical instruments may lead to differences in test results. Therefore, test results from different hospitals often lack comparability, and the same hospital must be chosen for long-term follow-up monitoring of markers so that physicians can make more accurate judgments.