Preoperative Serum CEA and CA19-9 in Gastric Cancer - a Single Tertiary Hospital Study of 1,075 Cases

To evaluate the clinical impact of preoperative serum CEA and CA19-9 on resectable gastric cancer (GC),a total of 1,075 consecutive cases with gastric adenocarcinoma were obtained retrospectively from January2012 and December 2013 in a single tertiary hospital, and the relationships between serum CEA, CA19-9 andclinicopathologic features were investigated. Positive preoperative serum rates of CEA and CA19-9 were 22.4%and 12.3% respectively, levels significantly correlating with each other and depth of invasion, lymph nodeinvolvement, pTNM and stage. The CEA level also presented a remarkable association with lymphovascularinvasion. Both CEA and CA19-9 positivity significantly and positively correlated with depth of invasion, nodalinvolvement, pTNM stage, lymphovascular invasion, tumor size and tumor location. Stratified analyses accordingto gender or tumor location showed preoperative CEA or CA19-9 had different associations with clinicopathologicfeatures in different gender subgroups or location subgroups. Preoperative serum CA19-9 positivity may bemore meaningful for tumor size rather than CEA. In conclusion, preoperative serum CEA and CA19-9 correlatewith disease progression of GC, and may have applications in aiding more accurate estimation of tumor stage,decision of treatment choice and prognosis evaluation.