Elevated CA 19-9 portends poor prognosis in patients undergoing resection of biliary malignancies.
BACKGROUND
Biliary tree malignancies including cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer are aggressive cancers with a high disease-specific mortality despite resection. The aim of the present study was to identify predictors of survival after resection.


METHODS
A retrospective review of all patients that underwent radical resection of biliary malignancies was performed. Demographics, elevated CA19-9 (>35 U/ml), treatment and outcome data were collected and compared according to tumour location. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were created and compared using log-rank analysis. Multivariate analysis was undertaken using Cox proportional hazards regression.


RESULTS
Ninety-one patients with biliary malignancies underwent surgical resection between 1992 and 2007. There were 46 (50.5%) extrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (EHC), 23 (25.2%) intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (IHC) and 22 (24.2%) gallbladder carcinomas (GBC). The median (range) age was 64 (24-92) years. An elevated CA19-9 was recorded in 45 (55%) patients (52% of IHC, 63% of EHC, and 41% of GBC). The overall median (range) survival was 22.5 (0.3-153.3) months. All three groups were similar in terms of age, gender, pre-operative CA 19-9 level, completeness of resection and tumour histopathological characteristics. GBC were associated with the shortest median survival (14.3 months) followed by EHC (24.8 months) and IHC (30.4 months); however, this did not meet statistical significance (P= 0.971). Only elevated pre-operative CA 19-9 level (>35 U/ml) was predictive of poor median survival by univariate (P= 0.003) and multivariate analysis (15.1 months vs. 67.4, P= 0.047).


CONCLUSIONS
Elevated pre-operative CA 19-9 levels were found to be independent predictors of poor survival after attempted resection for biliary tree malignancies. It is recommended that CA19-9 be routinely measured prior resection.
Hatzaras
Ioannis
I
Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Schmidt
Carl
C
Muscarella
Peter
P
Melvin
W Scott
WS
Ellison
E Christopher
EC
Bloomston
Mark
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001661:Biliary Tract Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D001662:Biliary Tract Surgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D015854:Up-Regulation; D055815:Young Adult
D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen