Abstract

Background: the authors evaluated the correlation between the seric level of CEA and CA 72-4 to the depth of invasion and staging of gastric neoplasms.
Methods: were evaluated patients with gastric adenocarcinoma admitted at the Department of Abdominal Surgery, Erasto Gaertner Hospital, in the period between January 1996 and January 2000, including in this study patients who had preoperative and postoperative dosage of at least one of the tumor markers (CEA and/or CA 72-4) and had pathologic staging or evidences of disseminated disease by image methods.
Results: of the 144 eligible patients, 71% were male. The mean age was 59 years. CEA was altered in 66,2% of the cases, and in 70,3% of the cases for CA 72-4 analysis. Regarding depth of invasion, tumor invaded mucosal layer in 7 (4,8%) patients, submucosal layer in 8 (5,6%) patients, muscular layer in 34 (23,6%), serosa in 45 (31,3%) and adjacent structures in 33(22,9%) of the cases. In 17 patients the depth of invasion was not available, although disseminated disease was already confirmed by other methods. In the comparative analysis of seric levels of CEA and CA 72-4 related to depth of invasion, we did not observe statistic significance to positivity rates of markers in gastric tumors.
Conclusions: in this study, the CEA and CA 72-4 did not predict depth of invasion and staging in patients with gastric cancer.

Key words: stomach neoplasms; biological tumor markers; neoplasm invasiveness; prognostic; neoplasm staging; CEA antigen; CA 72-4 antigen.