title: The association between preoperative serum CEA concentrations and synchronous liver metastasis in colorectal cancer patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Liver is the primary site for the metastasis from colorectal cancer (CRC). It has been proposed that carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) might have an instrumental role in the development of hepatic metastasis from human CRC. The aim of the present study was therefore to investigate the association between preoperative serum CEA concentrations and the incidence of synchronous CRC-liver metastasis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 199 patients with CRC who underwent radical surgery at the Shiraz University hospitals were enrolled in this study. The preoperative serum CEA levels of patients without distant metastasis were compared with those with hepatic metastasis and those with other organs metastasis at the time of initial diagnosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Preoperative serum CEA concentrations were found to be significantly higher in patients with distant metastases compared to patients with local CRC (P < 0.001). Moreover, the mean serum CEA level in patients with liver metastasis was higher than non-metastasis group (42.89 ng/ml vs 9.62 ng/ml) (p < 0.001). We did not find significant differences in serum CEA concentrations between non-metastasis and the other organ metastasis groups (p> 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that patients with high preoperative serum CEA levels should have more intensive follow-up for detection of synchronous liver metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.|Current address: Research Center of Nervous System Stem Cells and Faculty of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pakdel
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cancer Research, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahyar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malekzadeh
authors.affiliation: Autoimmune Research Center, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Fakhraddin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Naghibalhossaini
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000556:secondary*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen
keywords: Colorectal cancer; liver metastasis; serum CEA