Background/aims: We investigated in this paper the clinicopathological factors that affect the prognosis of esophageal cancer with preoperative positive CEA.
Methodology: Out of 252 patients with thoracic esophageal cancer who received curative resection in our department, we selected 33 cases with esophageal cancer that had positive serum CEA level preoperatively. We analyzed the clinicopathological factors which affect the prognosis in these CEA positive cases.
Results: There were no differences in preoperative CEA levels according to the variant clinicopathological factors. The number of lymph nodes metastasis, depth of tumor involvement, lymphatic invasion, and preoperative SCC antigen level were the significant factors influencing survival. But, only preoperative SCC antigen level was independent and a significant prognostic factor on multivariant analysis.
Conclusions: While sensitivities of SCC antigen and CEA are low in esophageal cancer, the cases having positive value in both CEA and SCC antigen preoperatively have high recurrence rates after radical esophagectomy.