Abstract
Gastric cancer remains an aggressive malignancy responsible for a high number of deaths annually. An important method used in order to determine the response to treatment, follow-up and detection of recurrence in association with imagistic examinations remains laboratory determination of tumor markers. The most common used tumor markers in patients diagnosed with gastric cancer are CA 72-4, CEA, CA 19-9.
Highlights
Gastric cancer is the third malignancy in the world in terms of mortality, mainly because it is diagnosed in an advanced stage
The laboratory investigations most frequently used in patients with gastric cancer are the complete blood count, 30% of patients being diagnosed with anemia, the electrolyte panels, the liver function tests and the tumor markers. [1]
The role of CA 72-4 in the diagnosis CA 72-4 is a glycoprotein which can be detected in gastric, pancreatic, colorectal, ovarian and breast cancers. [4,5] Its normal concentrations are lower than 6.9 U/mL. [6] Literature data show a sensitivity of 40% in the detection of gastric cancer, of 40% in the detection of colorectal cancer, 50% in the detection of ovarian cancer and an overall specificity of 95%. [7] A meta-analysis realized by Chen on the bases of 33 studies proved that CA 72-4 was the tumor marker with the highest overall accuracy (77%) in the detection of gastric cancer. [8]
Summary
Gastric cancer is the third malignancy in the world in terms of mortality, mainly because it is diagnosed in an advanced stage. The role of CA 72-4 in estimating prognosis Research results have proved some correlations between the concentrations of CA 72-4 and the stage of lymph node involvement and the tumor resectability. Literature data show that there is a correlation between the increased pre-treatment concentrations of CEA and the stage of the disease. [16,17] The studies showed that the CEA levels are higher and that the pathological values are more frequently encountered in young patients (aged between 18 and 30 years old) These patients are often characterized by greater tumor sizes and lymph-vascular involvement and by a worse overall survival. The role of CEA in the diagnosis Statistical data show that CEA has a sensitivity of 30% in the detection of gastric cancer and a negative predictive value of 58.82%. It can detect them with over 2 months earlier than the radiological method. [21]
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