CEA and CA19-9 in the tissue, portal, and peripheral blood of gastric cancer patients

摘要: BACKGROUND:To clarify the clinical significance of CEA and CA19-9 in patients with gastric cancer, we evaluated the correlation between tissue expression, the peripheral and the portal levels of these tumor markers, and ten clinicopathological factors, as well as the prognosis.METHODS:Surgical specimens from 40 patients with gastric cancer were examined by using immunohistochemical staining with anti-CEA and anti-CA19-9 monoclonal antibodies. Serum levels of CEA and CA19-9 in the portal and the peripheral blood were measured by using immunoradiometric assays.RESULTS:Positive values of the portal venous CEA were more common in patients with lymph-node metastasis, distant metastasis, and lymphatic invasion than in those without these factors. Curative surgery was performed in 50.5% of the patients with high portal CEA levels and in 90.6% of the patients with low portal CEA levels. Positive values of the peripheral venous CEA were significantly higher in cases with lymph-node metastasis. The positive rate of CA19-9 immunohistochemistry was significantly higher in patients with distant metastasis and in non-curative surgery. The positive rate of peripheral venous CA19-9 was higher in cases with distant metastasis. The three-year survival rate of patients with negative tissue CEA was significantly higher than that of patients with a positive result. The peripheral venous levels of CEA and CA19-9 reflected the portal venous levels accurately.CONCLUSIONS:These results suggest that immunohistochemical examination of CEA in patients with gastric cancer is useful for the evaluation of the biological aggressiveness and …