RESUMEN
The usefulness of assaying tumoral markers in lung cancers is examined. 63 patients (56 men and 7 women) suffering from various types of malignant lung cancers were examined and compared with 44 patients hospitalised for benign lung complaints. The markers used were: CEA, Ferritin, GICA and TPA. Ferritin proved the most sensitive marker with 73% positive results for tumours as opposed to 47.6% for CEA and GICA and only 19% for TPA. The division of tumours into histological types (Adenocarcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, microcytomas and large cell anaplastic carcinomas) showed that Ferritin is the best marker for lung cancers (70% positive results in adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas, 62.5% in microcytomas, 87.5% in large cell anaplastic carcinomas). CEA and GICA display almost the same level of sensitivity in the different histological types: the sensitivity of TPA is low in all cases. Specificity was found to be satisfactory for all markers examined. It may be concluded that best results are obtained by combining Ferritin assay with CEA and/or GICA tests.