Prognostic value of carcinoembryonic antigen, CA 19-9 and CA 72-4 in gastric carcinoma

The prognostic value of preoperative serum levels of carcinoembryonic antig en (CEA), CA 19-9 and CA 72-4 tumor markers was investigated in patients wi th gastric cancer. Eighty-two patients who underwent surgical resection of gastric cancer were entered in the study. Correlation analyses showed that CA 72-4 was more frequently positive in patients with advanced tumors (p = 0.04), lymph node invasion (p = 0.02), liver metastasis (p = 0.02) and peri toneal involvement (p = 0.03). CA 19-9 was more frequently positive in pati ents with advanced tumors (p = 0.01) and with serosal (p = 0.04), lymph nod e (p = 0.008) and peritoneal involvement (p = 0.02). CEA was more frequentl y positive in patients with liver metastasis (p = 0.03). Low 3-year cumulat ive survival was significantly associated with elevated serum levels of CA 72-4 (p = 0.004), CA 19-9 (p = 0.001) and CEA (p < 0.001). Age, tumor stage and CA 72-4 provided prognostic information in the multivariate analysis. Patients with elevated serum levels of CA 72-4 showed a 4.2 times higher ri sk of death than patients with low levels of the marker. Our results sugges t that CA 72-4 has prognostic value in gastric cancer, and patients with a high preoperative serum level of CA 72-4 have a greater risk of death due t o gastric cancer. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.