Preoperative Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen as a Marker for Predicting the Outcome of Three Cancers

BACKGROUND: Serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) are associated with a variety of tumors. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the prognostic value of pretreatment serum CEA levels in predicting the outcomes of multiple tumors subjected to treatment. METHODS: Prior to therapy, serum samples from 71 prostate, 46 breast, 77 gastric, and 31 pancreatic cancer patients were collected to examine serum CEA levels. The cutoff value for CEA was set as determined by the maximum Youden index. The data were analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier curves generated by the log-rank test and Cox multivariate analysis. RESULTS: The overall survival rate for all the patients was 71.11%. The 3-year survival rate of patients with prostate, breast, gastric, and pancreatic cancers was 81.69%, 95.65%, 54.55%, and 51.61%, respectively. The 3-year survival rate showed significant statistical differences between patients with serum CEA levels <2.885 µg/L and those with serum CEA levels ⩾2.885 µg/L (P < .001). The statistical differences of the 3-year survival rate also existed in the men (P = .010) or women group (P < .001), as well as in the 3 different types of cancer, which include breast cancer (P = .025), gastric cancer (P = .001), and pancreatic cancer (P = .047). CONCLUSIONS: Serum CEA levels can provide additional prognostic information and may be useful in treatment implementation for patients with breast, gastric, or pancreatic cancer.