Relation between Carcinoembryonic Antigen Levels in Colon Cancer Tissue and Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen Levels at Initial Surgery and Recurrence

Objectives: Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is widely used for postoperative surveillance of colon cancer. Even if serum CEA is negative at initial surgery, it may turn positive at recurrence. We investigated the relation between serum CEA levels and the immunohistochemical staining status of CEA in the primary and resected metastatic tissues. Methods : Out of 224 patients with recurrent colon cancer between 1998 and 2012, we studied 46 patients in whom serum CEA levels were measured and immunohistochemical staining for CEA was possible in the primary and metastatic tissues. Results: The positive rate of serum CEA did not differ between initial surgery and recurrence, regardless of whether the cutoff value was set at 5 or 10 ng/ml (p = 0.829, p = 0.671). There was no relation between the CEA staining status and serum CEA level at initial surgery. However, the CEA staining status of metastatic tissue was significantly related to the serum CEA level at recurrence (p = 0.0046 and p = 0.0026). Conclusions: The immunohistochemical staining status of CEA in metastatic tissue is closely related to the serum CEA level. This finding suggests that serum CEA levels are influenced not Received: March 31, 2016 Accepted after revision: May 23, 2016 Published online: June 4, 2016 Prof. Sotaro Sadahiro Department of Surgery, Tokai University School of Medicine 143 Shimokasuya Isehara Kanagawa 259-1193 (Japan) E-Mail sadahiro @ is.icc.tokai.ac.jp © 2016 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel 0030–2414/16/0912–0085$39.50/0 www.karger.com/ocl Th is article is licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BYNC-ND) (http://www.karger.com/Services/OpenAccessLicense). Usage and distribution for commercial purposes as well as any distribution of modifi ed material requires written permission. D ow nl oa de d by : 54 .7 0. 40 .1 1 11 /2 6/ 20 17 4 :4 1: 08 P M