Specificity of carcinoembryonic antigen, gastrointestinal cancer-associated antigen, tissue polypeptide antigen, fibrinopeptide A and gamma-glutamyltransferase in the diagnosis and follow-up of gastric cancer.

The usefulness and specificity of the main tumor markers (carcinoembryonic antigen, CEA; gastrointestinal cancer-associated antigen, GICA; tissue polypeptide antigen, TPA; fibrinopeptide A, FpA; gamma-glutamyltransferase, gamma-GT) have been investigated in the diagnosis and follow-up of the circumscribed and disseminated gastric cancers (GCs). The comprehensive evaluation of all of these markers has given the most reliable results. For the diagnosis and follow-up of GCs, the present study has shown that the sensitivity and specificity of the above markers have the following decreasing order: FpA, TPA, GICA, CEA, gamma-GT. However gamma-GT has proved to be a reliable index of the presence of hepatic metastases.