The predictivity of carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA)‎ level in detecting liver metastasis in colorectal cancer

الملخص EN

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the level of Carcino-Embryonic Antigen (CEA) and the presence of colorectal liver metastasis in patients with colorectal cancer.

Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at colorectal unit at King Hussein Medical Center (KHMC).

All patients who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC) at our colorectal surgery unit from January 2015 to may 2017 were included in the study.

Data collected and analyzed included demographics, smoking habits, location of tumor, the presence of distant metastasis and the level of CEA.

The primary outcome was to compare presence of distant metastasis between the two groups.

Secondary outcome included the CEA level elevation with regard to age, gender and smoking.

Sixty five patients with abnormal CEA level (study group) were compared to 82 patients with normal CEA levels (control group).

Results: One hundred and forty seven patients were included in our study.

There were 78 males (53.1%) and 69 females (46.9%) with a mean age of 59.2 years (range 27-86 years).

Seventy three patients were smokers (49.7%).

Liver metastases were present in 40 patients (27.2%).

Seventy nine patients who had normal CEA level had no liver metastasis (96.3%), while three patients had normal CEA level and presence of metastasis (3.7%), negative predictive value of 96.34 %.

On the other hand, 28 patients with elevated CEA level had no liver metastasis (43%) and 37 patients with elevated CEA level had liver metastasis (56.9%), positive predictive value of 56.92%.

P value (0.016) Conclusion: Normal CEA levels significantly predict the absence of liver metastasis in CRC patients.

Elevated CEA levels were not affected by age and gender.

Strong association between CEA levels along with metastatic trend.