Preoiperative carcinoembryonic antigen level and prognosis in colorectal cancer

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels were estimated in 117 patients before resection of colorectal cancer. Twenty-six per cent of patients had normal CEA values. CEA values rose progressively with tumour stages, and were higher in patients with liver metastases compared with patients with only lymph-node spread. No significant difference in survival, independent of stage of spread, was found between patients with preoperative levels of antigen greater or less than 5 ng/mL of plasma. Similarly, there was no significant difference between the survival of patients with stage B or stage C tumours regardless of whether their levels of the antigen were greater or less than 10 ng/mL of plasma. A single preoperative CEA estimation does not add to the prognostic information available from careful assessment of the stage of tumour spread.