The prognostic and predictive value of serum CA199 and CEA in colorectal cancer metastasis

Objective To determine the prognostic and predictive value of serum CA199 and CEA in colorectal cancer metastasis. Methods Clinical characteristics of 1 064 patients with colorectal cancer were collected. Serum CA199 and CEA were tested. All participants were followed-up in term of prognosis. Results CA199 exhibited higher predictive accuracy index for predicting lymph node metastasis, whereas serum CEA was more accurate for the prediction of liver metastasis. Patients with negative levels of CA199/CEA had significantly prolonged survival than those with either single positive CA199/CEA or double positive indicators (all P<0.05). Cox proportional hazards regression showed that the risk of death from positive serum CEA was 1.50 times of that from negative group (HR=1.50, 95% CI:0.89-1.83, P=0.020). Conclusions Serum CA199 and CEA levels are risk factors of poor prognosis in colorectal cancer patients, which may be utilized to predict metastasis.