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Cigarette smoking is known to be associated with the risk of developing certain types of cancers, cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. This study was aimed at evaluating the risks of certain types of cancers, cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases in smokers. A total of 90 subjects were recruited for this study. This comprised 60 male smokers and 30 male non-smokers within the age range of 18 and 65. The levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) were determined using Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique. Smokers had significantly higher levels of CEA compared with non smokers P0.05). However, a strong correlation existed between duration of smoking and the mean levels of CEA (r = 0.296) and cTnI I (r = 0.170) while a negative correlation was observed between the duration of smoking and the mean levels of TNF-α (r = -0.073). The highest serum CEA and cTnI levels were obtained in moderate smokers and the highest serum TNF-α level was observed in heavy smokers. This work suggests that smokers have increased levels of CEA and may regularly face the risk of certain types of cancers. more...

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of carcinoerembryonic antigen in patients with rectal cancer and correlate its baseline with the degree of therapeutic pathomorphosis after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.Materials and methods. An estimate of the informative value of carcinoerembryonic antigen (CEA) indices in 179 patients with colorectal cancer determined before and after preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in SOD 50 Gy.Results. Analysis of the results presented in the study showed that in all patients, CRT caused a significant decrease in the level of CEA (–71%) 10 weeks after its end (p < 0.001). In the course of the pathomorphological study, after the neoadjuvant treatment, the first degree of tumor pathomorphism was recorded in 4.5% of patients, II – 38.5%, III – 45%, IV – 12% (the degree of pathomorphosis is not related to the clinical stage and the degree of differentiation of colorectal cancer). It was revealed that patients with III and IV degrees of therapeutic pathomorphosis initially had a CEA level lower, in comparison with patients with grade I-II. Clinical progression of the disease is diagnosed in 24% of cases (43/179). It was noted that in patients with the IV degree of therapeutic pathomorphism of the tumor, no recurrence of the rectal cancer was detected in either case.Conclusion. The results of the study showed that the problem of individual prediction of the effectiveness of combined treatment of the rectal cancer remains very relevant, rather complicated and yet not completely solved. However, it can be assumed that the use of such an indicator as CEA in monitoring patients after the treatment, can serve as a criterion for the sensitivity of colorectal cancer to CRT. Initially low antigen level can be considered as a positive factor of tumor response to ongoing treatment and disease-free survival of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. more...

This article presents a general experimental protocol for programmable one-pot oligosaccharide synthesis and demonstrates how to use Auto-CHO software for generating potential synthetic solutions. The programmable one-pot oligosaccharide synthesis approach is designed to empower fast oligosaccharide synthesis of large amounts using thioglycoside building blocks (BBLs) with the appropriate sequential order of relative reactivity values (RRVs). Auto-CHO is a cross-platform software with a graphical user interface that provides possible synthetic solutions for programmable one-pot oligosaccharide synthesis by searching a BBL library (containing about 150 validated and >50,000 virtual BBLs) with accurately predicted RRVs by support vector regression. The algorithm for hierarchical one-pot synthesis has been implemented in Auto-CHO and uses fragments generated by one-pot reactions as new BBLs. In addition, Auto-CHO allows users to give feedback for virtual BBLs to keep valuable ones for further use. One-pot synthesis of stage-specific embryonic antigen 4 (SSEA-4), which is a pluripotent human embryonic stem cell marker, is demonstrated in this work. more...

The presence of Tissue Polypeptide Antigen (TPA) and Carcino-embryonic Antigen (CEA) in serial sections of 32 breast carcinomas and one case of neurofibrosarcoma was demonstrated by immunocytochemistry using the indirect peroxidase technique. The neurofibrosarcoma was negative for TPA and CEA. All 32 specimens of breast cancer were positive for TPA and/or CEA. In 12 cases the staining was strongly positive for both TPA and CEA. In other cases either TPA or CEA was more abundant in the tumor. The overall concordance of staining was 58%, which is in relative agreement with the correlation between values for TPA and CEA in serum from patients with breast cancer. The finding that in addition to the difference between tumors, there was a difference within tumors was interesting. This indicated that TPA and CEA may be synthesized during partly different phases of the proliferative cycle. more...

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate whether or not serum carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA), alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) can be used as potential biomarkers for colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnosis. Materials and Methods: Forty-six patients with pathology or cytology confirmed CRC and 36 cases with non-malignant colorectal disease (NMCD) were included in this retrospective study. The serum level of CEA, AFP and CA19-9 were arrayed and recorded for the two groups. The diagnosis sensitivity, specificity and area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve for serum CEA, AFP and CA19-9 were calculated by the STATA-10.0 software. Results: We found that serum CEA, AFP and CA19-9 level in CRC patients were significantly higher than in NMCDs cases (all P < 0.05). The diagnosis sensitivity of CRC for CEA, AFP and CA19-9 were 80.43%, 73.91% and 69.57%; the diagnosis specificity of CRC for CEA, AFP and CA19-9 were 75.00%, 69.44% and 61.11%. The areas under the ROC curves for CEA, AFP and CA19-9, were 0.88, 0.78 and 0.77 respectively. Conclusion: These findings suggest that serum CEA, AFP and CA19-9 may be a useful biomarker for diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma against NMCD. more...

Carcino Embryonic Antigen (CEA) and Cancer Antigen 15.3 (CA15.3) are the most common tumor markers in breast cancer patients. Measurement of circulating tumor markers is a non-invasive quantitative method. Serum levels of CEA and CA 15.3 were studied in female breast cancer patients prior to treatment. To evaluate the utility of these markers, 207 Breast carcinoma patients belonging to all the stages were considered. Healthy age matched 75 female individuals formed the control group. The serum levels of CEA and CA 15.3 were analyzed by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Results were taken and compared with stages, tumor size, node and grade. The serum CA 15.3 levels were significant in all the study parameters whereas serum CEA levels showed no significant changes with any of the parameters. Measurement of serum CA 15.3 levels showed significant correlation (24.8%) with advanced stages and larger tumor sizes, whereas serum CEA levels did not show any significant correlation in breast cancer patients prior to treatment. more...

The European Directive 98/79/EC on in vitro diagnostic medical devices (IVD) regulates the marketing and post market surveillance of IVD in the European Economic Area. In cases of incidents and field corrective actions the manufacturers have to inform the responsible Competent Authorities (CA). In Germany, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) is the responsible CA for most IVD. In this study all notifications regarding IVD (tests, calibrators, kits, and control materials, except laboratory analyzers) for tumor diagnostics received by the BfArM between begin 1999 until end of 2010 were analyzed. All notifications were analyzed in respect to the type of product, the source of notification, the underlying product defects and the corrective actions performed. In the observation period, a total of 2,851 notifications were received of which 84 were related to IVD for tumor diagnostics included in this study (clinical chemistry – 63, histology – 6, molecular biology – 3, rapid tests – 12). Reports were received from manufacturers (68 cases), CA (8 cases), users (4 cases) and other sources (4 cases). In the group of IVD based on clinical chemistry means, the affected products were mostly those for the measurement of prostate specific antigen (PSA, 14 cases), human chorion gonadotropine (13 cases), carcino embryonic antigen (6 cases), CA 19–9 (6 cases), α1-fetoprotein (6 cases) and CA 125 (5 cases), whereas in test strips 9 out of the 12 notifications were related to PSA. Investigations of the manufacturers were able to identify the underlying root causes of product failures in 66 cases (78.6%). In 10 cases (11.9%) the root cause remained unclear and in 6 cases and 2 cases (7.1% and 2.4%) a product failure was excluded or a user error was the underlying cause. Most common root causes of product failures were material defects (24 cases) and manufacturing errors (15 cases). Corrective actions were performed by the manufacturers in 64 cases (76.2%) and were predominantly (multiple entries possible) customer information (62 cases, mandatory in case of a recall), recalls (45 cases), modifications in production or quality management (45 cases) and design changes (14 cases). The obtained results suggest that the system for post marketing surveillance of IVD is an established tool to enhance product safety and provides valuable information on product specific problems serving for improvement of product safety. more...

Background The present paper is a first evaluation of the use of "CEAwatch", a clinical support software system for surgeons for the follow-up of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. This system gathers Carcino-Embryonic Antigen (CEA) values and automatically returns a recommendation based on the latest values. Methods Consecutive patients receiving follow-up care for CRC fulfilling our in- and exclusion criteria were identified to participate in this study. From August 2008, when the software was introduced, patients were asked to undergo the software-supported follow-up. Safety of the follow-up, experiences of working with the software, and technical issues were analyzed. Results 245 patients were identified. The software-supported group contained 184 patients; the control group contained 61 patients. The software was safe in finding the same amount of recurrent disease with fewer outpatient visits, and revealed few technical problems. Clinicians experienced a decrease in follow-up workload of up to 50% with high adherence to the follow-up scheme. Conclusion CEAwatch is an efficient software tool helping clinicians working with large numbers of follow-up patients. The number of outpatient visits can safely be reduced, thus significantly decreasing workload for clinicians. more...

Bevacizumab-containing treatment is one of the approved first-line options for the management of metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). Carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) is a reasonable tumour marker for monitoring the efficacy of treatment. We report here a case of a 58-year-old male patient with metastatic CRC. He received first-line chemotherapy consisting of the mFOLFOX6 regimen plus bevacizumab. Initially he had an increase in CEA after which the level reduced, suggesting the occurrence of a CEA flare. The patient experienced a good response to therapy. In recent literature, CEA flare was identified as a good predictor of response to first-line chemotherapy. more...

治癒切除術後2年以上経過観察しえた大腸癌147例のうち再発例 (41例, 27.9%) を対象とし, 初回治療時の臨床病理学的特徴と再発の早期診断法を検討した, 再発41例の内訳は結腸癌18例 (43.9%), 直腸癌23例 (56.1%) で, 再発様式は血行再発が28例 (68.3%) と最も多く (1例は局所再発を合併), 大腸癌取扱い規約による壁深達度s (a2) 以上, n (+), ly (+), stage III・IV症例に多かった.局所再発は14例 (34-2%) であり (1例は血行再発を合併), 中分化腺癌, n (+), ly (+), stage III・IV症例に多かった.血行再発と局所再発はそれぞれ89.3%, 85.7%の症例が2年以内に再発し, carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) slope analysisでは局所再発より血行再発でslope値が高かった.CEA値上昇は画像診断より平均3.28か月前にみられ, 再発の診断にはCEA値の追跡が最も有用であった.直腸癌では腫瘤触知などの臨床所見も有用であった.再発41例の術後3年生存率は20.3%で再発様式による予後の差はなかった. more...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequent and aggressive neoplasms. It is the second leading cause of death from cancer in the United States and is a significant overall health problem. Tumor markers are substances synthesized and excreted by tumor tissues that can be detected in abnormal concentrations in serum, urine, and other body fluids. Two such markers, Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and Carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9), are useful in the diagnosis, prognosis and management of colorectal carcinoma. This study attempted to evaluate the clinical and prognostic value of the two markers using forty patients with CRC and ten healthy persons as a control group. All patients with CRC showed highly significant increases in CEA and CA-19-9 compared to the control group (p more...

e18551 Background: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) includes conventional and combined SCLC. Combined SCLCs are about 28% of SCLCs who were received surgical resection, but it is reported only about 1... more...

Serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels were studied in 128 patients with histologically proven breast cancer. When measured at diagnosis in patients with non-metastatic disease (all stages except Stage IV) 27% of patients had levels greater than 10 ng/ ml. Measurement of the CEA at initial diagnosis gave little guide to which patients subsequently relapsed. Patients with Stage IV disease at diagnosis had levels in excess of 10 ng/ml in 75% of cases. Furthermore, changes in serum CEA levels were found to reflect changes in tumour bulk, in individual patients, in 75.8% of cases. It is concluded that while serial measurements of serum CEA levels can be of value, particularly in the management of advanced breast cancer patients, it is of less value in the earlier stages as a predicator of recurrence. more...

This prospective study of radioimmunoscintigraphy using 111In-labelled, C46, a monoclonal antibody against carcino embryonic antigen, CEA, was undertaken in 23 patients with colorectal cancer, 18 with primary carcinomas, 3 with recurrences and 2 with metastases. A sensitivity of 95% and an accuracy of 91% was found. New observations through the use of two administered doses of antibody and the analysis of surgical specimens showed that for the low dose of antibody (average 0.76 mg) tumour uptake was 1.14 x 10(-2)% of the injected dose per gram, whereas on the higher dose (average 4.67 mg) the average tumour uptake was 6.77% (same units) p less than 0.01. Thus a six-fold increase of antibody caused a six-fold increase in tumour uptake, but no change was seen in the tumour to mucosa ratio 4.8 +/- 0.5 (low dose) and 4.0 +/- 1.0 (high dose). A further observation was that well and moderately differentiated tumours took up about four times more than poorly differentiated tumours (p less than 0.05). It was also found that tumour free lymph nodes had a six-fold greater uptake than tumour involved nodes (p less than 0.05) confirming other work with anti-CEA monoclonal antibody. In conclusion, although biological factors influence its efficacy, 111In labelled C46 anti-CEA is a suitable radiopharmaceutical for the radioimmunoscintigraphy of colorectal cancer. more...

Granular-cell tumour (GCT) of the skin is an uncommon tumour of disputed histogenesis, that has been subjected to several immunohistochemical studies. The controversy existing in the literature concerning the expression of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) by GCT prompted us to study a series of 17 cases of cutaneous GCT by using an avidin-biotin-immunoperoxidase technique on routinely-processed tissue sections. No CEA activity was detected in any of the tumours screened. The reasons for this controversy are discussed. more...

Summary Measurements of HCG and carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) were made in 26 patients with ovarian cancer to evaluate these substances as tumour markers; 13·4 per cent of 194 CEA estimations and 14·6 per cent of 144 HCG estimations were abnormal. CEA values were abnormal in 9 out of 26 patients and HCG values in 13 out of 26 patients. The implications of these findings particularly the presence of HCG are discussed. more...

Plasma carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels were studied in all available members of 17 families in which a presumed sporadic retinoblastoma had occurred. In 9 of the 17 families, close relatives of the patient had elevated CEA levels in the absence of demonstrable disease; this we have termed the "CEA family syndrome." In two families (Nos. 8 and 17) one or both parents and all of the siblings had elevated CEA levels. To our knowledge, this is the first report of abnormal CEA levels in unaffected family members of patients with nonadenocarcinoma-type malignancies. As follow-up studies of such families become available, detection of the "CEA family syndrome" may prove to be a useful means of locating individuals with inherited premalignant or malignant conditions and may provide a stimulus for additional clinical examination of asymptomatic individuals considered at risk for developing malignancies. more...

Nineteen patients who have had medullary carcinomas of the thyroid have been followed up at the Royal Marsden Hospital. All had nodal involvement. Postoperative unprovoked serum calcitonin assays have been performed. Four patients had incomplete excisions of their tumours and these had the highest postoperative levels. Two died within 3 years, one has stable disease 8 years later and one remains well 13 years later. Four patients had postoperative calcitonin assays of over 100 ng/ml but had no clinical evidence of remaining disease. Only one has died (7 years later), the others remaining well 10, 10 and 3 years later. Four patients died of their disease and all had assays of over 200 ng/ml, before death. Slightly raised postoperative assays were found in all the other patients, but these have not significantly altered. These patients had good prognoses. Three patients also had regular carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) assays and the value of this is discussed. more...

Carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) was detected in the blood serum of 70% of rats with tumors of the large intestine induced by 1,2-dimethylhydrazine and with posttraumatic regeneration of the mucosa of the large intestine. After injection of estrogen (diethylstilbestrol proionate, 0.57 μg daily for 6 days) the frequency of appearance of CEA in such animals increased, as also did the CEA level in the blood serum. In rats with injury to the mucosa of the large intestine, injection of estrogen prevented the natural decrease in the CEA concentration as the intensity of the regenerative process diminished. more...

The aim of this report is to present an attempt to determine the role of serial plasma CEA determinations and the therapeutic monitoring of cancer patients, especially bronchus-, breast- and gastro-intestinal tumours. In other words to examine if a correlation between CEA levels and the clinical course after a chemotherapeutic treatment can be found. more...

There is a great need for appropriate animal models of various types of human neoplasms. Such models allow detailed studies of various aspects of immunologic diagnosis, therapy, and prevention, which for a variety of reasons cannot be performed in human patients. The crucial question in regard to any such animal model is of course to what extent it is analogous to the corresponding human neoplasm. It is quite clear that the conditions in a human cancer patient are always different in a number of ways from those in a tumor-bearing animal. However, it is also striking, that immunologic mechanisms are generally very similar in various animal species. As a consequence, a certain group of antigens often give rise to similar types of immune responses in humans and various animal species. more...

Urinary carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) was measured in a follow-up study of 101 bladder carcinoma patients. Urinary CEA estimation during follow-up appears to be of clinical value. Negative results can be interpreted only in relation to previously increased values. Positive results are of value in retrospect when combined with negative data, e.g. in evaluation of suspicious bladder changes and as an early indication of renewed tumour growth. Increased CEA levels in urines from patients with urinary infection rapidly decline once the infection is cured. more...

Carcino embryonic antigen (CEA) is an onoofetal proteins which has been widely ssudied as one of the clinically important substances. Since Gold and Freedman de­scribed the existence of correlation between carcinoma and CEA in 1965, a number of reports on the increase of CEA level in malignant tumor was published, and the method of radioimmunoassay has been developed. more...

Evidence of circadian variation of CEA levels was provided in a non-cancer population. At a group level, cancer was characterized by the disappearance of “normal” fluctuations of CEA. At an individual level, part of the cancer patients retained circadian variability of CEA, but with different amplitudes and acrophases that reference group. more...

Tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) and carcino embryonic antigen (CEA) were measured in 55 patients with cancer in different locations (21 lung cancer, 133 breast cancer, 9 stomach cancer, 5 colorectal cancer, 7 cancer of unknown origin). TPA gives elevated values in all types of cancer. The statistical analysis shows that TPA is about equally sensitive for all cancer types, while CEA has a particularly high sensitivity for colorectal carcinoma. The TPA values in the group of cancer patients is significantly different from those in a group of healthy controls. TPA gives higher sensitivity than CEA in all tumour locations. By the use of combined determination of TPA and CEA the sensitivity can be further increased, to 64% for the whole patient population and 89% for the gastric tumour patients, even when the cut-off values are chosen so high that no false positives are obtained in either reference group (150 Ul-1 for TPA, 10 ng ml-1 for CEA). A limited correlation exists between the markers in tumour patients. more...