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Updated: Jul 19, 2025
Gene Regulation and Targeted Therapy in Gastric Cancer Peritoneal Metastasis: Radiological Findings from Dual Energy CT and PET/CT
Published on: January 22, 2018
Using Normalized Carcinoembryonic Antigen and Carbohydrate Antigen 19 to Predict and Monitor the Efficacy of
Xiao-Huan Tang1, Xiao-Long Wu1, Xue-Jun Gan1
1Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Gas-Trointestinal Cancer Center, Ward I, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing 100142, China.
Abstract:
Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) are established prognostic biomarkers for patients with gastric cancer. However, their potential as predictive markers for neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) efficacy has not been fully elucidated.
Methods:
We conducted a retrospective analysis to determine values of CEA and CA19-9 prior to NACT (pre-NACT) and after NACT (post-NACT) in 399 patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) who received intended NACT and surgery.
Results:
Among the 399 patients who underwent NACT plus surgery, 132 patients (33.1%) had elevated pre-NACT CEA/CA19-9 values. Furthermore, either pre-NACT or post-NACT CEA /CA19-9 levels were significantly associated with prognosis (p = 0.0023) compared to patients with non-elevated levels. Moreover, among the patients, a significant proportion (73/132, 55.3%) achieved normalized CEA/CA19-9 following NACT, which is a strong marker of a favorable treatment response and survival benefits. In addition, the patients with normalized CEA/CA19-9 also had a prolonged survival compared to those who underwent surgery first (p = 0.0140), which may be attributed to the clearance of micro-metastatic foci. Additionally, the magnitude of CEA/CA19-9 changes did not exhibit a statistically significant prognostic value.
Conclusions:
Normalization of CEA/CA19-9 is a strong biomarker for the effectiveness of treatment, and can thus be exploited to prolong the long-term survival of patients with LAGC.
