title: Carcinoembryonic antigen. Its role in the evaluation of intraocular malignant tumors.
abstract: Plasma carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was studied in 60 patients with histologically confirmed intraocular neoplasms including 56 malignant melanomas of the uvea and four metastatic tumors to the choroid. While 45% of the patients with primary uveal melanomas, as well as 75% of the patients with metastatic disease demonstrated elevated plasma CEA levels, both patients who exhibited metastatic lesions of entodermal origin demonstrated plasma CEA values that clearly fell into a separate, highly elevated category, consistent with metastatic disease or pancreatic or colorectal carcinoma. Thus, in the patient seen with a nonpigmented choroidal mass that may represent either a choroidal hemangioma, amelanotic melanoma, or metastatic tumor, plasma CEA levels may be useful in the differential diagnosis. If the clinician suspects a metastatic tumor from an occult primary site, highly elevated CEA levels may indicate that the lesion is of entodermal origin.
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000276:immunology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis*; D002830:Choroid Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005134:Eye Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006391:Hemangioma / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000276:immunology; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen