Carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes: a potential prognostic marker for patients with colorectal cancer.

Background/aims: This study was conducted to define the clinical significance of intraoperative determination of carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes from patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer.

Methodology: The correlation of carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes (pCEA) with several clinicopathological factors and the long-term surgical outcome in 54 patients with resectable colorectal cancer was determined retrospectively.

Results: Among several clinicopathological factors, the depth of tumor invasion significantly and independently correlated with pCEA levels as revealed by multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis. A significant difference in overall survival rates was observed between pCEA-positive and pCEA-negative groups: five-year survival rates were 97.1% in pCEA-negative patients and 78.9% in pCEA-positive patients (p = 0.0274).

Conclusions: Intraoperative determination of carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes could be a potentially predictive factor of a poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer.