Preoperative Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen as a Marker for Predicting the Outcome of Three Cancers

Abstract

BACKGROUNDSerum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) are associated with a variety of tumors.OBJECTIVEThis study evaluated the prognostic value of pretreatment serum CEA levels in predicting the outcomes of multiple tumors subjected to treatment.METHODSPrior to therapy, serum samples from 71 prostate, 46 breast, 77 gastric, and 31 pancreatic cancer patients were collected to examine serum CEA levels. The cutoff value for CEA was set as determined by the maximum Youden index. The data were analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier curves generated by the log-rank test and Cox multivariate analysis.RESULTSThe overall survival rate for all the patients was 71.11%. The 3-year survival rate of patients with prostate, breast, gastric, and pancreatic cancers was 81.69%, 95.65%, 54.55%, and 51.61%, respectively. The 3-year survival rate showed significant statistical differences between patients with serum CEA levels <2.885 µg/L and those with serum CEA levels ⩾2.885 µg/L (P < .001). The statistical differences of the 3-year survival rate also existed in the men (P = .010) or women group (P < .001), as well as in the 3 different types of cancer, which include breast cancer (P = .025), gastric cancer (P = .001), and pancreatic cancer (P = .047).CONCLUSIONSSerum CEA levels can provide additional prognostic information and may be useful in treatment implementation for patients with breast, gastric, or pancreatic cancer.

Serum tumor markers enhance the predictive power of the AJCC and LCSGJ staging systems in resectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

“…21 CA 19-9 and CEA have both been suggested as surrogates of tumor biology among patients with hepatic, pancreatic, biliary and other gastrointestinal malignancies. [33][34][35][36] Ohtsuka et al reported that CA 19-9 was independently associated with ICC prognosis, while Wang et al incorporated both CA 19-9 and CEA in a prognostic nomogram for ICC. 15,16 In a separate study from the Mayo Clinic, Bergquist et al corroborated the prognostic importance of CA 19-9 in a Western cohort of patients with ICC.…”

Clinicopathological and Prognostic Significance of Cancer Antigen 15-3 and Carcinoembryonic Antigen in Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis including 12,993 Patients

“…CEA is less widely investigated as a prognostic factor than CA15-3 because it has a less positive rate and is more controversial. Some studies have reported that CEA is not a predictor in primary and metastasis breast cancer [ 20 , 21 , 23 , 24 ], but others have reported that high concentrations of CEA were related to a poor prognosis in breast cancer [ 17 , 25 , 26 ]. These above contradictory results of CA15-3 and CEA in breast cancer regarding their prognostic value may be due to small sample sizes, variable study designs, or other biases in each single study.…”

Cancer Antigen 72-4 for the Monitoring of Advanced Tumors of the Gastrointestinal Tract, Lung, Breast and Ovaries

“…The glycoprotein, with a half-life of approximately 7 days, was found to be expressed in gastrointestinal and mucosal tissue during fetal development but only minimally expressed in adult tissue (15,16). Further studies showed that it was also overexpressed in adenocarcinomas of varying origin including gastric, hepatic, lung, pancreatic, ovarian and prostate (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24). In colon cancer, the specificity and sensitivity of CEA has been shown to vary with advancing tumor stage, with specificity ranging between 37% and 86% in advanced disease, providing a useful means of monitoring disease (25)(26)(27).…”