Background: To study the prognostic significance of changes in the level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) before and after surgery on the long-term prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).
Methods: Patients with ESCC who underwent radical esophagectomy (between 2010 and 2017) were divided into three groups as follows: normal group (preoperative CEA≦1.6 ng/ml), normalized group (preoperative CEA > 1.6 ng/ml and postoperative CEA≦1.6 ng/ml) and non-normalized group (preoperative CEA > 1.6 ng/ml and postoperative CEA > 1.6 ng/ml). The Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to construct survival curves. Cox proportional hazards regression models was used to determine the independent prognostic factors for ESCC. Variables with P < 0.1 in univariable analysis were included in the multivariable model used to determine the independent risk factors.
Results: A total of 394 patients were included. The 5-OS rate of ESCC patients in normalized group (n = 36) and non-normalized group (n = 161) were significantly shorter than normal group (n =197) patients (57.3% vs 58.3% vs 82.0%, P < 0.001). The difference in survival time distribution between normal group and normalized/non-normalized group is statistically significant, P < 0.001. However, there was no statistically significant variation in survival time distribution between the normalized and non-normalized groups, P = 0.289. In multivariate analysis, older age (> 65 years old), advanced pT-stage, advanced pN-stage, normalized group and non-normalized group were independent prognostic risk factors of worse overall survival.
Conclusions: ESCC patients with high preoperative CEA level had poorer prognosis regardless of the changes of postoperative CEA level.
© 2022. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Société Internationale de Chirurgie.