Comparison of four serum tumour markers in the diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma

Y T van der Schouw, A L Verbeek, T Wobbes, M F Segers, C M Thomas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The assessment of the diagnostic power of four serum tumour markers, CEA, CA 19-9, CA 50 and CA 195 for colorectal carcinoma is described, according to recently formulated guidelines. Preoperative serum concentrations of the four markers were determined in 198 colorectal cancer patients and 57 patients with a benign colorectal disorder. The cumulative frequency distributions of the malignant and benign group show strong overlap for all markers, which indicates low diagnostic ability. This is confirmed by the Receiver Operating Characteristic curves, which have areas under the curve of 0.65 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.58-0.73) for CA 19-9, CA 50 and CA 195 and of 0.70 (95%) CI 0.63-0.77) for CEA. The new tumour markers appear to be of slightly less diagnostic value than CEA for the primary diagnosis of colorectal cancer, although the discrepancy is not statistically significant. The low diagnostic power of CA 19-9, CA 50 and CA 195 may be due to a high proportion of colorectal cancer patients having the Lewis(a-b-) phenotype, who cannot synthesise these markers.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)148-54
Number of pages7
JournalBritish Journal of Cancer
Volume66
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - Jul 1992

Keywords

  • Antigens, Tumor-Associated, Carbohydrate
  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Carcinoembryonic Antigen
  • Colonic Diseases
  • Colonic Neoplasms
  • Fluorescent Antibody Technique
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Immunoenzyme Techniques
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Palliative Care
  • Radioimmunoassay
  • Rectal Neoplasms
  • Recurrence
  • Comparative Study
  • Journal Article

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