[Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and non-oncological liver diseases (case report)]

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), an oncofetal glycoprotein, has been originally suggested as a tumor marker for colorectal cancer and afterwards has been regarded as a specific marker for different cancers. The determination of CEA in 73 patients with "benign" hepatic diseases points out the limitation of test's diagnostic value on account of the not infrequent observation of false positives in the examined cases. In particular the greatest incidence and intensity of elevated levels of CEA has been found in hepatic cirrhosis. However must be mentioned that the highest values of CEA has been documented nearly constantly in the comparison's group of some forms of malignancies, between which nevertheless there have been sporadically false negatives.