The Changes and Clinical Significance of Preoperative and Postoperative Serum CEA and CA19-9 in Gastric Cancer.

BACKGROUND

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 are the most commonly used tumor markers in gastric cancer (GC). The purpose of this study was to dynamically monitor the preoperative and postoperative CEA and/or CA19-9 levels in GC patients to determine their value in efficacy monitoring and prognosis.

METHODS

The preoperative and postoperative CEA and/or CA19-9 were measured in 397 GC patients and correlated to pathology and the overall survival (OS).

RESULTS

We found the depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, and pTNM stage were the most important factors affecting the elevated levels of CEA and CA19-9 in GC patients (all p < 0.001). There were significant differences between preoperative CEA or CA19-9 and postoperative values (p < 0.001). Multivariate analyses revealed that postoperative CEA and the presence of lymph node metastasis were independently associated with shorter OS (p = 0.041; p = 0.030).

CONCLUSIONS

Dynamic monitoring of CEA and CA19-9 before and after surgery can be used to determine tumor burden. Postoperative rather than preoperative tumor markers, especially postoperative CEA, are good indicators for judging the prognosis of GC patients.