The diagnostic value of serum carcino-embryonic antigen, alpha fetoprotein and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 for colorectal cancer

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate whether or not serum carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA), alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) can be used as potential biomarkers for colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnosis.

Materials and methods: Forty-six patients with pathology or cytology confirmed CRC and 36 cases with non-malignant colorectal disease (NMCD) were included in this retrospective study. The serum level of CEA, AFP and CA19-9 were arrayed and recorded for the two groups. The diagnosis sensitivity, specificity and area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve for serum CEA, AFP and CA19-9 were calculated by the STATA-10.0 software.

Results: We found that serum CEA, AFP and CA19-9 level in CRC patients were significantly higher than in NMCDs cases (all P < 0.05). The diagnosis sensitivity of CRC for CEA, AFP and CA19-9 were 80.43%, 73.91% and 69.57%; the diagnosis specificity of CRC for CEA, AFP and CA19-9 were 75.00%, 69.44% and 61.11%. The areas under the ROC curves for CEA, AFP and CA19-9, were 0.88, 0.78 and 0.77 respectively.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that serum CEA, AFP and CA19-9 may be a useful biomarker for diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma against NMCD.