The Ewha Medical Journal
Ewha Womans University School of Medicine
Original Article

The Significance of Postoperative Serial CEA Levels in Recurrent Colorectal Cancer

Eung Bum Park
Corresponding author: Eung Bum Park. Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Korea.

Copyright ⓒ 1987. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Jul 24, 2015

Abstract

The reliability of postoperative CEA testing in the recurrent colorectal cancer was studies using serial CEA determinations for the early detection of the recurrent colorectal cancer. The data was derived 15 patients in my experience. The results were as follows. 1) In the aspect of the relation of CEA levels and the clinucal stages of colorectal cancer, the CEA levels did not correlate well parallel with the Dukes stages of colorectal cancer in this study. 2) The postoperative CEA levels are remarkably reduced 13 out of 15 patients. And 2 patients are slightly increased, which is not significant because they were within normal limit pre- and postoperatively. 3) The CEA levels were elevated remarkably in recurrent cancers. Especially in the patient with liver metastesis, the serum CEA levels were elevated abruptly. And in case with preoperatively high CEA levels, interval to recurrences was shortened.