The clinical value of carcinoembryonic antigen for tumor metastasis assessment in lung cancer.

Jiasi Wang,Yanpeng Chu,Jie Li,Junfeng Wang,Liangli Sun,Fanwei Zeng,Pingfei Wang,Xiangdong Fang,Fanxin Zeng,Tingjie Wang

doi:10.7717/peerj.7433

Jiasi Wang, Yanpeng Chu + Show 8 more

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https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7433

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Journal: PeerJ	Publication Date: Aug 7, 2019
Citations: 13	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Dazhou Central Hospital, Leiden University Medical Center

Abstract

BackgroundCarcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) as a diagnostic or prognostic marker has been widely studied in patients with lung cancer. However, the relationship between serum CEA and tumor metastasis in lung cancer remains controversial. This study aimed to investigate the ability of serum CEA to assess tumor metastasis in lung cancer patients.MethodsWe performed a retrospective analysis of 238 patients diagnosed with lung cancer from January to December 2016 at pneumology department of Dazhou Central Hospital (Dazhou, China). Serum CEA levels were quantified in each patient at the time of diagnosis of lung cancer. Metastasis was confirmed by computed tomography (CT), and/or positron emission tomography (PET) and/or surgery or other necessary detecting methods.ResultsOf the 213 patients eligible for final analysis, 128 were diagnosed with metastasis and 85 were diagnosed without metastasis. Compared to non-metastatic patients, the serum CEA was markedly higher in patients with metastasis (p < 0.001), and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.724 (95% CI [0.654–0.793]). Subsequent analyses regarding the number and location of tumor metastases showed that CEA also had clinical value for multiple metastases versus single metastasis (AUC = 0.780, 95% CI [0.699–0.862]) and distant metastasis versus non-distant metastasis (AUC = 0.815, 95% CI [0.733–0.897]). In addition, we found that tumor size, histology diagnosis, age and gender had no impact on the assessment performance of CEA.ConclusionOur study suggested the serum CEA as a valuable marker for tumor metastases assessment in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients, which could have some implications in clinical application.

Highlights

Lung cancer is the most common cause of death among all cancers worldwide (Torre et al, 2015; Wang, Song & Zhang, 2018)
Among the 213 lung cancer patients with a definite diagnosis of cancer, 128 patients were included in the metastasis group and 85 patients were included in the non-metastasis group (Table 1)
We further investigated the relation between Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level and metastasis without predefined model structure

Summary

Introduction

Lung cancer is the most common cause of death among all cancers worldwide (Torre et al, 2015; Wang, Song & Zhang, 2018). Evidence suggests that tumor metastasis reflects the relatively advanced stage of lung cancer and is responsible for more than 70% of patient deaths (Langer et al, 2010). In NSCLC patients, the main locations for tumor metastasis are lymph gland, bone, brain and liver (Wood et al, 2014). The relationship between serum CEA and tumor metastasis in lung cancer remains controversial. This study aimed to investigate the ability of serum CEA to assess tumor metastasis in lung cancer patients. Serum CEA levels were quantified in each patient at the time of diagnosis of lung cancer. Our study suggested the serum CEA as a valuable marker for tumor metastases assessment in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients, which could have some implications in clinical application

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