Preoperative levels of perchloric acid extractable plasma CEA were measured in 911 patients with complaints of the digestive system. A final diagnosis of benign disease was made for 579 patients; 332 patients were found to have cancer. Data for the preoperative CEA values were examined for clinical significance as an aide to diagnosis, preoperative disease staging, and prognosis. The results of our analysis support the conclusions of many investigators that the CEA assay is not a clinically useful diagnostic test, but it shows limited value in preoperative staging and a somewhat stronger correlation with prognosis.

Pretreatment levels of plasma carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were determined for a series of patients with bronchogenic carcinoma and for a series of patients with benign pulmonary disease. These data were analyzed to determine the diagnostic and prognostic value of the CEA radioimmunoassay in bronchogenic carcinoma. CEA plasma values in patients with benign pulmonary disease indicate that the level of discrimination between positive and negative tests for bronchogenic carcinoma should be at least 5.0 ng/ml. Half the patients with bronchogenic carcinoma in this study had CEA plasma values less than 5.0 ng/ml. The data also indicate that the CEA test does not correlate well with patient survival or stage of disease at time of diagnosis, and that the CEA test frequently fails to identify patients with extensive metastatic disease. It is concluded that the pretherapy plasma CEA level will not be of value as a diagnostic or prognostic test in the management of a significant number of patients with bronchogenic carcinoma.

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A clinical study to evaluate the Makari Intradermal Test (MIT) involved 180 patients seen with symptoms suggestive of malignant disease, 85 of whom were subsequently shown to have carcinoma of the large bowel, and 66 asymptomatic volunteers. The prognostic value of initial and serial studies relative to patient-survival rate and the efficacy of serial studies in detecting disease in long-term follow-up of patients with resected malignant lesions were evaluated. On the basis of this study, the MIT appears to merit further investigation, not as a definitive diagnostic procedure, but as a survey for identifying patients with early malignancy or individuals at high risk to malignant epigenesis.