Relationship between mesenteric and peripheral blood levels of CA 19-9 in patients with colorectal cancer

Introduction: CA19-9 is one of the most important tumor markers used in pat ients with colorectal cancer, mainly in radical surgery follow-up. Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the preoperative CA19-9 leve l obtained from a peripheral vein (PV) and compare it to the level obtained from the mesenteric vein (MV). Materials and methods: Blood was collected from a PV of the arm and from th e MV of 59 patients with colorectal cancer before primary surgery. Of these 59 patients fourteen had stage I disease, 10 stage II, 22 stage III, and 1 3 stage IV. CA19-9 was determined in serum by immunoenzymatic assay (Abbott Diagnostica). Results: Fifteen patients (24%) had elevated serum levels of CA19-9 in the MV and 13 (22%) in the PV. None of the stage I or II patients had elevated serum levels of CA19-9. There were no differences between marker levels in blood collected from the MV or PV, independent of clinical stage. The CA19- 9 values obtained from the MV differed significantly in the different stage s of the disease according to the Kruskal-Wallis analysis (p=0.026); this d ifference was not statistically significant (p=0.08) in serum from the PV. There was no correlation between venous infiltration by the tumor and posit ivity of CA19-9 serum levels collected from the mesenteric vein. We observe d a close correlation between the serum levels of CA19-9 collected from the PV and from the MV (r=0.9). Conclusion: The current study demonstrates a close correlation between the serum levels of CA19-9 collected from a peripheral vein and from the mesent eric vein. Our results confirmed the poor sensitivity of serum CA19-9 at di agnosis, independent of the collection site.