Carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes: a potential prognostic marker for patients with colorectal cancer. 2003
OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to define the clinical significance of intraoperative determination of carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes from patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer. METHODS The correlation of carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes (pCEA) with several clinicopathological factors and the long-term surgical outcome in 54 patients with resectable colorectal cancer was determined retrospectively. RESULTS Among several clinicopathological factors, the depth of tumor invasion significantly and independently correlated with pCEA levels as revealed by multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis. A significant difference in overall survival rates was observed between pCEA-positive and pCEA-negative groups: five-year survival rates were 97.1% in pCEA-negative patients and 78.9% in pCEA-positive patients (p = 0.0274). CONCLUSIONS Intraoperative determination of carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes could be a potentially predictive factor of a poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer.