CEA and ferritin in chronic pancreatic disease: a comparative evaluation.

CEA and ferritin were determined in 90 subjects with the aim of comparing their value in the diagnosis of pancreatic malignancy. Ferritin was shown to be more sensitive than CEA in detecting pancreatic cancer patients (68.4% and 57.9%, respectively) all of whom were, however, in an inoperable stage. In contrast, CEA showed a higher specificity as compared to ferritin (77.4% and 47.2%, respectively), the latter being frequently increased in inflammatory conditions such as chronic pancreatitis. The simultaneous assessment of CEA and ferritin showed the highest sensitivity when either parameter was found to be pathological and the highest specificity when both were. The receiver-operating characteristic curves demonstrated that CEA is more discriminating than ferritin for all serum values. Neither ferritin nor CEA may be considered a practically suitable marker of pancreatic cancer.