Elevated carbohydrate antigen 125 post-operation as a prognostic marker in gastric cancer patients with stage II–III

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer is one of the high occurrence cancers among gastrointestinal tumor. Further research should be carried out to find more prognostic factors, screening patients with poor prognosis, who need stronger treatment. METHODS: The clinicopathologic characteristic, the levels of tumor markers and survival of 105 patients who underwent gastrectomy with a D2 lymph node dissection in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: In the 105 patients, there were 71 males, and the median age was 56 years (range, 21–83 years). In 105 patients, 77 patients were diagnosed with non-cardia cancer, 84.8% patients were diagnosed of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, more than half of the patients were diagnosed of T3–4, and 92 patients had lymph node metastasis, while the clinical stage III patients were accounted for 85%. Seventy point five percent patients were Borrmann III type. The median OS of the patients with increased preoperative serum CEA, CA125, CA19-9, AFP and combined were shorter than those patients with normal serum tumor markers, but without statistical significance (P=0.350, P=0.498, P=0.240, P=0.578 and P=0.219). The OS of patients with elevated levels of CEA, CA19-9, and AFP after operation were shorter than patients with decreased ones without statistical significance (P=0.321, P=0.118 and P=0.424). Elevated CA125 after operation was shorter than patients with decreased ones significantly (P<0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Elevated of CA125 after operation was associated with poor OS in stage II–III GC patients.