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Usefulness of serial serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) determinations during anticancer therapy or long-term followup of gastrointestinal carcinoma
- Source :
- Cancer. 34:1230-1234
- Publication Year :
- 1974
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 1974.
-
Abstract
- Repeated determinations of serum CEA levels in untreated advanced gastrointestinal cancer patients with initially elevated values showed day to day variations of ±35%. If there was no intervening chemotherapy, all such patients who were followed over long term showed progressively increasing CEA levels. With chemotherapy there was a general correlation between changes in serum CEA levels and clinically measured changes in tumor mass. Among patients who showed objective improvement, 75% had reduction in serum CEA levels (> 35%) and 87% had either reduced or unchanged levels. Among those who showed objective progression, 65% had increases in serum CEA levels (> 35%) and 80% had either increased or unchanged levels. Paradoxical reductions in CEA levels were observed in some patients approaching terminal status. Among 80 patients being followed with serial CEA determinations after potentially curative resections of large bowel cancer and normal postoperative CEA levels, 6 have again showed clinical evidence of malignant disease and in 5 of these there was concurrent elevation of serum CEA. Serial serum CEA determinations appear to have some value for following the course of gastrointestinal cancer patients after surgery or chemotherapy, but these determinations must be interpreted in the context of the over-all clinical picture.
- Subjects :
- Cancer Research
Chemotherapy
medicine.medical_specialty
endocrine system diseases
biology
business.industry
Colorectal cancer
medicine.medical_treatment
Context (language use)
medicine.disease
Gastroenterology
digestive system diseases
Surgery
Carcinoembryonic antigen
Oncology
Long term followup
Internal medicine
medicine
biology.protein
Gastrointestinal carcinoma
Gastrointestinal cancer
Day to day
business
neoplasms
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10970142 and 0008543X
- Volume :
- 34
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Cancer
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........c0ae87785ca2780bd6730e7106ff781a