[Evaluation of the measurement of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels using monoclonal antibody].

We measured serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels in 164 cancer patients, 153 patients with benign diseases and 45 healthy controls using monoclonal antibody and compared CEA levels by monoclonal antibody (m-CEA) with those by polyclonal antibody (p-CEA). There was a good correlation between m-CEA and p-CEA, especially in cancer patients. The positively of m-CEA was almost the same as that of p-CEA in cancer patients. But, false-positive cases by m-CEA were less common than by p-CEA in non-cancerous patients. Thus, the measurement of m-CEA was not less useful than that of p-CEA.