Advanced colon cancer: staging and prognosis by CEA test

The carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) test was studied in 54 patients with advanced stages of colon cancer which was treated with high doses of folinic acid + fluorouracil. The CEA test correlates evaluated included: prognostic value, performance status, metastatic pattern, histologic grading, predictive value for response to chemotherapy, and value differences in cases with partial response to therapy. CEA levels less than 5 ng/ml corresponded to a greater survival time than did levels greater than 5 ng/ml. A correlation of CEA with performance status and with metastatic pattern was demonstrated. A progressive increase in average CEA values corresponded to increases in neoplastic mass. Although CEA levels were not found to be an index for predicting the response to chemotherapy, there was a significant different between pre- and posttreatment levels for partial response. The results suggest that CEA offers an additional criterion for evaluating the response of colon cancer to chemotherapy and it also has a role in the staging of advanced disease.