Prognostic Significance of Preoperative Serum Carbohydrate Antigen 19-9 in Patients With Stage IV Colorectal Cancer.

INTRODUCTION

Carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 is a widely used tumor marker in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, its prognostic impact in patients with stage IV CRC who have undergone curative resection is not clear. We evaluated the prognostic power of preoperative serum CA 19-9 in these patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We performed a retrospective review of 173 patients with stage IV CRC who had undergone curative resection at our institution. Patients were categorized into normal and high CA 19-9 groups, and relapse-free survival and overall survival were compared using Kaplan-Meier curves. Multivariate analyses were performed using a Cox proportional hazard model.

RESULTS

The preoperative serum CA 19-9 level was elevated in 80 patients (46%). The 3-year relapse-free survival of the high CA 19-9 group was significantly worse than that of the normal CA 19-9 group (18% vs. 28%, respectively; P = .026). The 3-year overall survival of the high CA 19-9 group was significantly lower than that of the normal CA 19-9 group (75% vs. 82%; P = .047). Multivariate analyses indicated that elevated preoperative serum CA 19-9 level was an independent prognostic factor for poor relapse-free survival and overall survival, with a hazard ratio of 1.46 (95% confidence interval, 1.03-2.06; P = .035) and 1.90 (95% confidence interval, 1.10-3.29; P = .023), respectively.

CONCLUSION

The preoperative serum CA 19-9 level is a good predictive marker of tumor recurrence and prognosis in patients with stage IV CRC who have undergone curative resection.