Indicative value of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) for liver recurrence following curative resection of stage II and III gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We investigated the role of preoperative and serial postoperative serum CEA levels in advanced gastric cancer patients with curative operation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Preoperative and serum postoperative CEA levels were measured in 115 patients with Stage II and III gastric cancer and who underwent curative gastric resection.

RESULTS

The 5-year survival rates of patients with high preoperative CEA levels (> 5 ng/ml) were poorer than in case of low preoperative CEA levels (< 5 ng/ml) in both stage II (P < 0.05) and stage III (P < 0.01) gastric cancer. When the site of the recurrence was diagnosed in 47 patients with less than a 5-year survival, a high level of preoperative CEA was more likely to be associated with a liver metastasis (13/18, 72.2%) than with peritoneal dissemination (4/15, 26.7%) (P < 0.05). In the course of serial measurements of postoperative levels of CEA, CEA increased in patients with liver metastasis, and CEA levels began to elevate 3.2 months before clinical detection, while, little change of postoperative serum CEA levels was noted in patients with peritoneal dissemination.

CONCLUSIONS

We propose that the preoperative and serial postoperative assays of serum CEA level are predictive for liver metastasis in patients with stage II and III gastric cancer and treated by curative gastric resection.