THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PREOPERATIVE SERUM CEA AND CA19-9 LEVELS AND POSTOPERATIVE PROGNOSIS OF GASTRIC CANCER

Abstract

The correlation between preoperative serum CEA and CA19-9 levels and postoperative survival was examined in 552 patients undergoing gastrectomy for gastric cancer in our department in a recent 7-year period. As a whole the serum CEA positive-rate was 18.5% and the serum CA19-9 positive-rate was 19.5%. The higher the clinical stage, the higher the positive-rate of each tumor marker elevated. The prognosis of CEA positive group and of CA19-9 positive group were significantly poorer than each negative group, especially when the serum CEA level was above 10ng/ml and when the serum CA19-9 level was above 50U/ml. Divided into each stage, there was no significant difference in prognosis between CEA, CA19-9 positive group and negative group in stage III and IV. On the other hand in stage I and II, the prognosis of CEA positive group was significantly poorer than that of negative group and so was the prognosis of CA19-9 positive group in stage II. Concerned to lymphatic invasion (ly) and venous invasion (v) in stage I, the ly-positive rates in CEA positive group and CA19-9 positive group were significantly higher than those of negative groups and so was the v-positive rate of CA19-9 positive group. But there was no significant relation in stage II. We think that preopeartive CEA and CA19-9 levels might be useful prognostic factors of gastric cancer in a low-grade stage.