Objectives: To determine the levels of Ca125 and CEA those are tumor markers at tuberculosis patients during the treatment.

Materials and Methods: In 20 cases that were diagnosed as active pulmonary diagnosis (APT), the serum levels of CA-125 and CEA were measured initially and second and sixth months of the treatment. These results were compared with the results that obtained from 15 inactive pulmonary tuberculosis (IPT) cases and 15 healthy controls.

Results: Serum CA-125 levels were higher at APT cases than in IPT cases and controls at the beginning of the treatment (p<0.001, for both). These levels were still higher even if they begin to decrease according to the initial levels at APT cases at 2nd months of the treatment than in IPT and controls were (p<0.01; APT vs. IPT and p<0.005; APT vs. Controls). At 6th months of the treatment, statistically significant differences seen between groups were disappeared (p>0.05). Serum CA-125 levels were decreased as statistically significantly at times of initially, 2nd and 6th months of the treatment (p<0.001). No statistically significant differences were observed from the point view of serum CEA levels in all groups or at duration of treatment.

Conclusion: The serum CA-125 levels were high in pulmonary tuberculosis cases and these levels return the normal values with treatment. Thus, we think CA-125 could be used for follow up of tuberculosis treatment. ©2006, Fırat Üniversitesi, Tıp Fakültesi