The sera of 212 patients with malignant and non-malignant diseases have been radioimmunoassayed for the presence of the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) using 3 different kits produced of Hoffman La Roche, Switzerland (RCK), BY Sorin-IRE, Italy and Belgium (SCK), and by the Istituto Sieroterapico Milanese, Italy (ICK). In the presence of endodermically-derived system carcinomas, the RCK gave more positive results (72.6%) than did the SCK (63.1%) or ICK (56.2%). With regard to other carcinomas, ICK (50.0%) and SCK (47.1%) gave better results than did RCK (30.6%). The results are discussed in terms of clinical usefulness of the CEA assay and as regards reproducibility, procedural advantages, and economical cost of each kit. It is concluded that the CEA assay cannot be used for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancers, although it is useful as a measure of "cancerosity" for prognostic purposes. In this sense the double antibody method employed by SCK and ICK is clinically more advantageous than is the perchloric acid extraction-zirconyl phosphate gel precipitation method of RCK.

146 patients with carcinoma of the cardial and inferior thoracic esophagus in stage III and IV treated with resective and nonresective palliative surgery have been reviewed. The average survival after resective surgery was 16 months for stage-111 and 9 months for stage-IV patients, whereas the median survival time after nonresective surgery amounted to 6.5 months for stage-III and 3.1 months for stage-IV patients. The mean survival did not vary significantly according to tumor grade (15.1 and 14.2 months), but was 14.3 months with positive node involvement and 23.5 months with negative node involvement. If the general condition and age of the patients permit it, these results allow a resective procedure in stage-III lesions, where negative node involvement in 28.5% seems to confirm a good prognosis. Tumor grade did not seem to modify the survival and was not correlated to the stage of the disease.

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