THE PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF PREOPERATIVE SERUM CARCINOEMBRYONIC ANTIGEN IN PATIENTS WITH GASTRIC CANCER
NÜVİT DURAKER1, GÖNÜL AYKUTER2, ERCAN KÜLEKÇİ1, ÖZDEN ÖZ CALAY3
1SSK Okmeydanı Eğitim Hastanesi, 3. Cerrahi Kliniği, İSTANBUL
2SSK Okmeydanı Eğitim Hastanesi, 2. Cerrahi Kliniği, İSTANBUL
3İstanbul Üniversitesi, Cerrahpaşa Tıp Fakültesi Biyoistatistik Bilim Dalı, İSTANBUL
Abstract
In this prospective study, the clinical importance of preoperative serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in patients with gastric cancer was investigated. In 37% of the 86 cases CEA was positive (serum CEA level>5 ng/ml). There was a tendency for CEA positiveness in cases with serosal invasion and liver metastasis (respectively p=0.064, p=0.081). The positiveness of CEA was significantly higher in cases with differentiated and unresectable tumors and with lymph node metastasis (respectively p=0.019, p=0.024, p=0.043). CEA positiveness was 14.3% in Stage 1, but it increased to 54.1% in Stage IV tumors (p=0.004). When survival evaluation of 61 cases was done, CEA was found to have no prognostic value.
In conclusion, the diagnostic value of serum CEA in gastric cancer is low. As CEA positiveness increases with the extensivity of the disease, it can be helpful in the estimation of the stage and the resectability of the tumor, but it has no value in the prediction of the prognosis.
Keywords: STOMACH CANCER, CEA, SURVIVAL