CEACAM5 and breast cancer: The first known attempt to find markers for malignancy was made 2000 years ago and is described in an Egyptian papyrus, where breast cancer was distinguished from mastitis.[2] Incidentally the first tumor marker in modern medicine was identified by Bence-Jones, who in 1846 detected a heat precipitate in samples of acidified urine from patients suffering from "Mollities osseum".[2] In 1965, Gold et al., isolated a glycoprotein molecule from specimens of human colonic cancer and thus discovered the first "tumor antigen," later identified as carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA).[3]