Preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen and prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer.

The relationship between preoperative CEA, Dukes staging and disease recurrence, was analyzed in 92 patients with colon-rectal cancer, all who underwent curative surgery. Sixty-five of the 92 patients were followed for 36 months. A significant increase in disease recurrence risk is observable starting from a preoperative CEA value of greater than 7.5 ng/ml; corresponding values as such are verified by a significant fall in the actuarial survival curve in comparison to the progress of the curves of the other two groups with lower CEA values. A statistically significant correlation between preoperative CEA and staging was not observed, while both parameters result statistically very reliable (p less than 0.001) for prognosis; preoperative CEA values, less or greater than 7.5 ng/ml can help to stratify the Dukes tumours with respect to the probability of recurrence.