Clinicopathologic features and oncologic outcomes of colorectal cancer patients with extremely high carcinoembryonic antigen.

PURPOSE

The aim of this study is to investigate the clinicopathologic features and oncologic outcomes of colorectal cancer patients with extremely elevated (≥50 ng/mL) preoperative serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels.

METHODS

We enrolled 756 primary colorectal cancer patients with elevated preoperative CEA levels (≥5 ng/mL) who underwent surgery between 2004 and 2010 and compared clinicopathologic features according to preoperative CEA levels of 5-50 ng/mL (n = 676) and ≥50 ng/mL (n = 80). The impact of extremely elevated CEA on overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and the Cox proportional hazards model.

RESULTS

The median follow-up period was 43 months (range, 0-121). Patients with preoperative CEA ≥50 ng/mL demonstrated higher rates of advanced T stage (97.3 vs. 88.6%, p = 0.016) and distant metastasis (33.8 vs. 17.9%, p = 0.002), but not lymph node metastasis (54.1 vs. 52.2%, p = 0.807). The 5-year OS rate was 69.1%, and the 3-year DFS rate of curatively resected patients (n = 641; 84.8%) was 68.9%. In multivariate analysis, preoperative CEA ≥50 ng/mL, as well as age, N stage, vascular invasion, perineural invasion, post/preoperative CEA ratio ≥0.32, and palliative resection, was an independent predictor of OS. However, for patients treated with curative resection, preoperative CEA ≥50 ng/mL was not significantly associated with DFS or OS (p = 0.053 and 0.157, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Colorectal cancer patients with extremely elevated (≥50 ng/mL) preoperative CEA had advanced disease more frequently but comparable oncologic outcomes if curative resection was performed.