Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer

✍ Scribed by F. V. Ona; N. Zamcheck; P. Dhar; T. Moore; H. Z. Kupchik

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1973
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 359 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(197302)31:2<324::aid-cncr2820310208>3.0.co;2-y

✦ Synopsis

Twenty-three (85%) of 27 patients with pancreatic cancer tested for CEA by the method of Gold were positive. The CEA assay was more frequently positive in patients with cancer of the pancreas than were any other diagnostic tests used, including upper gastrointestinal series,g hypotonic duodenography,l coeliac arteriography,z and percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography4; 10 of 11 patients with negative upper gastrointestinal series were positive, as were three of five with negative hypotonic duodenograms, four of five with negative coeliac arteriograms, and one with negative percutaneous transhepatic cholangiograms. CEA was positive in three patients with negative pancreatic biopsies. CEA "detected" liver metastases twice as of ten as did liver scan: eight positives had high CEA levels (> 10 ng/ml). Since most cases had far advanced cancer, more study of early cases is needed.

ESPITE ADVANCES IN RADIOLOGY, SCANNING, D ant1 enzymology, diagnosis of cancer of the pancreas remains unsatisfactory. T h e incidence of cancer of the pancreas appears to be rising. I n a Connecticut study, pancreatic carcinoma accounted for 10% of all digestive tract cancers.14 From 1920 to 1970, the ageadjusted niortality rate from pancreatic carcinoma rose froin 2.9% to 9.0yo per 100,000 population, an increase of more than 300%.11

In 1965, Gold et al. described carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and found it in all adenocarcinomas arising from the entodermally derived digestive tract e p i t h e l i ~m . ~~~ I n 1969, Thomson et al. described a serum assay for CEA but found it positive in only one