[The preoperative and postoperative carcinoembryonic antigen test in the diagnosis, staging, and prognosis of gastric cancer. Tumor Marker Committee, Japanese Foundation for Multidisciplinary Treatment of Cancer].

Preoperative and postoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels were studied in 3,532 patients with Surgically treated gastric cancer in 52 institutions from 1980 to 1981. These patients had disease resectable with curative intent and were followed for a minimum of 5 years or until death. Among 2,749 Stage I cases, 33 had recurrence and proved to be histologically stage I. A pair matching case control study between these 33 cases and matched 33 stage I controls without recurrence proved that the preoperative CEA level was relatively higher in cases with recurrence (p = 0.079). In Stage II and III cases, an analysis of variance using a cut off level as a block factor was performed. Among 315 Stage II cases, preoperative CEA levels were significantly higher in cases with recurrence than in cases without recurrence. In 468 Stage III cases, no correlations between preoperative CEA levels and high risks of cancer recurrence were detected. In Stage I and Stage II cases, CEA levels significantly increased at the time of recurrence. In conclusion, preoperative high serum CEA levels might be considered one of the risk factors for recurrence of Stage I and II gastric cancers, and monitoring the postoperative CEA levels might be useful in early detection of recurrence.