title: Carcinoembryonic antigen in gastric juice collected during endoscopy. Value in detecting high-risk patients and gastric cancer.
abstract: In order to ascertain the role of gastric carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) determination in detecting patients with a risk for gastric cancer, 69 subjects were studied; 23 were referred for endoscopy because of dyspepsia but without obvious macroscopic lesions, 27 with duodenal ulcer, 11 with benign gastric ulcer, 8 with gastric cancer. The following results were obtained by subdividing the material according to the histologic interpretation of the results of gastric mucosal biopsies: (1) in the presence of minor histologic abnormalities of the gastric mucosa, CEA in gastric juice was under 100 ng/ml in all but five cases; and (2) in moderate or severe chronic atrophic gastritis (associated or otherwise with intestinal metaplasia or dysplasia), and in gastric cancer, gastric CEA ranged between 224 and 3120 ng/ml in all but two cases. Although not diagnostic for gastric cancer, gastric CEA is a promising test in detecting patients at risk, including those with dysplasia of the gastric mucosa.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis*; D004724:Endoscopy; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005750:Gastric Juice / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012306:Risk; D013270:Stomach / Q000276:immunology; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*
chemical_list: D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen