Correlations of cancer antigen 19-9 and Carcinoembryonic antigen with histopathological and clinical features among malignant thyroid tumors

Abstract

Background: CEA and CA19-9 are important serum tumor marker for malignant tumors especially gastrointestinal tumors. This study aimed to reveal the correlations of CA19-9 and CEA titers with malignant thyroid tumors (MTTs). Methodology: This study enrolled patients' with MTTs (n=50), and control group (n=50). Thyroid biopsies were taken from MTTs and examined histopathologically and the sera of the patients' and control groups were tested for both CEA and CA19-9, the patients' group was tested twice, preoperatively and post operatively. Results: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) was the most common MTT [n=46, (92%)]. Neck swelling was the most frequent (89.1%) feature among PTC patients. For the patients' group, the median serum CEA results preoperatively was 1.57 (1.08-2.30) ng/ml, then it became 1.57 (0.94-2.05) ng/ml postoperatively, while the median preoperative serum CA19-9 was 12.17 (6.50-18.68) U/ml, then it became 12.24 (6.57-20.11) U/ml postoperatively; for both tumor markers, the differences between preoperative and postoperative concentrations were statistically significant (<0.05). The differences between median CEA concentrations between patients' group and control group were statistically significant (p=0.001); while for CA 19-9 were statistically non-significant (p=0.936). Histologically, 97.92% of the differentiated thyroid tumors were in stage I. Conclusion:There is significant decline in CEA concentration postoperatively among papillary thyroid carcinoma patients, while CA 19-9 was significantly increased postoperatively. The CEA concentration is higher in MTTs than in normal population and there is non-significant difference in CA 19-9 concentrations in MTTs and in normal population.