Correlations between serial CEA levels and surgery in patients with colorectal carcinoma

Nowadays the evaluation of serial carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels represents an important parameter for the prognosis of patients with carcinoma of the large bowel. Changes in CEA values allow the drawing of conclusions regarding the effectiveness of therapy. We have studied 63 patients with colorectal carcinoma that underwent surgical treatment. Serial CEA levels were tested in each patient before surgery and 15 days after. The 53 patients were considered surgically cured; and among these 7 did not have a significant decrease of CEA values after surgery. The percentage of recurrences among these patients has been 71.4%; meanwhile patients who showed a decrease of CEA values below cutoff values had recurrences only in 17.3% of cases. For this reason is our opinion that patients considered surgically cured who have postoperative high CEA levels cannot be considered really cured from a biological point of view.