The İmportance of tumor markers in patients undergoing resection for lung metastasis of colorectal carcinoma

OBJECTIVES: In patients with suitable conditions, complete resection is a potential curative treatment for lung metastases of colorectal cancers (CRC). Various prognostic factors affecting survival have been reported in these patients. In our study, the prognostic significance of CEA and CA19‐9 tumor markers in patients who underwent lung resection for CRC metastasis was researched. METHODS: Fifty‐three patients who underwent lung resection for CRC metastasis between January 2015 and July 2021 were included in the study. The relationship between preoperative and postoperative CEA and CA19‐9 values, survival times, tumor size, and preoperative CEA and CA19‐9 levels were investigated. RESULTS: Patients with high preoperative and postoperative CEA had shorter survival (OS) compared with patients with lower values (p ≤ 0.001 and p = 0.009, respectively). Disease‐free survival (DFS) was also shorter in patients with higher preoperative CEA values (p = 0.008). For patients with higher preoperative and postoperative CA 19–9 values, OS and DFS were shorter (p = 0.013 and p ≤ 0.001) and (p = 0.042 and p ≤ 0.001), respectively. There was a weak positive correlation between preoperative CEA value and tumor size (p = 0.008, Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.360). However, a strong positive correlation between preoperative CA19‐9 value and tumor size was discovered (p ≤ 0.001, Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.603). CONCLUSION: In our study, it was shown that preoperative‐postoperative CEA and CA19‐9 levels in patients with metastatic colon carcinoma are associated with overall survival.