Abstract:
Objective: To investigate the relationship between the serum concentrations of CEA, CA199, and CA242and clinical pathological characteristics in colorectal patients.
Methods: We employed ELISA to detect the serum concen-trations of CEA, CA199, and CA242 in 602 patients with colorectal cancer.
Results: (1) The preoperative serum levels ofCEA, CA199, and CA242 were not correlated with age, gender or pathological type of the tumor(
P>0.05). (2) The preoper-ative serum levels of CEA(23.29± 7.64 μ g/ml), CA199(43.11± 6.85 U/ml), and CA242 (40.27± 6.13 U/ml) in patients withcolon cancer were significantly higher than those in patients with rectal cancer (11.13± 1.99 μ g/ml, 34.43± 3.36 U/ml, and26.06± 2.29 U/ml, respectively; P<0.001). (3) The levels of CA199(47.10± 5.04 U/ml) and CA242(37.70± 3.89 U/ml) in pa-tients with lymph node metastasis were higher than those in patients without lymph node metastasis (22.38± 2.57 U/ml and18.99± 2.15 U/ml, respectively; P<0.001). (4) The concentrations of CEA(30.72± 3.61 μ g/ml), CA199(92.22± 12.20 U/ml),and CA242 (68.08± 7.85 U/ml) in patients with distant metastasis were significantly higher than those in patients withoutdistant metastasis (9.83± 1.62 U/ml, 26.95± 2.27 U/ml, and 21.80± 1.80 U/ml, respectively; P<0.001). (5) Serum levels ofCEA, CA199, and CA242 increased as the Dukes stage elevated. (6) The serum CEA, CA199, and CA242 levels werepositively correlated with the depth of tumor invasion. (7) The serum levels of CA199 and CA242 in patients with invasivetype tumors were higher than those in patients with ulcerative, mushroom and cast type. (8) The size of the primary tumorwas closely related to the preoperative serum levels of CA199 and CA242. (9) The preoperative serum level of CEA has apositive correlation with the levels of serum CA199(
r=0.189,
P<0.05) and CA242(
r=0.194,
P<0.05). The CA199 level wassignificantly correlated with the CA242 level(
r=0.884, P<0.001).
Conclusion: (1) In colorectal cancer patients, the preop-erative serum levels of CEA, CA199, and CA242 were closely related to the location of the tumor and the presence ofdistant metastasis. (2) The preoperative serum levels of CA199 and CA242 showed a close relationship with clinical patho-logical characteristics. (3) Detection of preoperative serum levels of CEA, CA199, and CA242 can be helpful for evaluatingthe biological behaviors of colorectal cancer.