Serum carcinoembryonic antigen level increases correlate with tumor progression in patients with differentiated gastric carcinoma following noncurative resection

Serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels were determined serially in 30 preoperative and postoperative patients with differentiated and 47 with undifferentiated gastric cancers. Macroscopic noncurative resection of the stomach was done for those patients. There was no difference between survival curves in the differentiated and undifferentiated cases, and the 50% survival was 13.1 months for the differentiated group and 12.5 months for the undifferentiated group. Preoperative serum CEA levels were 10.4 +/- 5.2 ng/ml for the differentiated and 4.0 +/- 1.6 ng/ml for the undifferentiated cases, and CEA-positive rates were 20.0% for the differentiated and 14.9% for the undifferentiated cases. There was no difference in preoperative CEA values with regard to tissue types. In the course of tumor progression, CEA levels increased during the first postoperative year in the differentiated cases and related reciprocally to decreases in survival rates. Little change was noted in the undifferentiated cases. Therefore, the serial postoperative assay of serum CEA levels has predictability with regard to tumor progression in patients with a differentiated gastric cancer.