Preoperative Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen Level as a Prognostic Factor for Recurrence and Survival After Curative Resection Followed by Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Stage III Colon Cancer

Abstract

Preoperative serum CEA level is an independent prognostic factor for DFS and OS in patients with stage III colon cancer after curative resection and adjuvant chemotherapy.

Pre‐operative carcinoembryonic antigen predicts survival following colorectal cancer surgery with curative intent

“…Our observation that CEA was an independent predictor of survival is consistent with the findings of other studies . Becerra et al .…”

“…Additionally, Kim et al . found pre‐operative CEA to predict DFS and overall survival in patients with stage III colon cancer following curative resection with adjuvant chemotherapy . Whilst these large studies suggest a prognostic role for CEA within subgroups of colorectal cancer patients at a population level, our study reveals an effect that is observable across disease site and stage at an individual level and this may be useful in informing personalized treatment decisions.…”

“…Investigators such as Jeon et al ., who identified 5.5, 4.8 and 3.5 ng/mL as optimum cut‐off values for TNM stages I, II and III, respectively and Kim et al . who found a CEA above 3.0 ng/mL to independently predict DFS and overall survival in stage III colon cancer advance the argument for stage‐specific cut‐off levels. A limitation of the present study is the insufficient number of cases to allow individualized cut‐off values to be determined for each TNM stage and site.…”

Prognostic role of preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen levels in colorectal cancer: propensity score matching

“…Although the study used propensity score matching to reduce various biases, it is a retrospective study. The cutoff value of serum CEA was several levels according to study design [14,16]. Moreover, the size of this study was small.…”

“…Many previous studies have reported that elevated preoperative CEA was related to worse DFS and OS in colorectal cancer [13,14]. Becerra et al demonstrated that elevated preoperative CEA was associated with a 48-78% increase in death hazard [2].…”