CEA Monitoring After Surgery for Colorectal Cancer
- 25 August 1993
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in JAMA
- Vol. 270 (8) , 987-988
- https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1993.03510080091038
Abstract
For years there have been dreams of a simple test that could detect cancer in its early stages, before it had caused symptoms, when it could be treated to better effect. This dream has been reinvigorated, then dissipated, repeatedly in recent years. Each new test has in turn been announced with enthusiasm, then studied more carefully in a broader spectrum of patients and found to have at best only a small place in the management of cancer. Nevertheless, it remains likely that someday there will be a truly useful blood test for cancer. Has that day now come? In this issue, Moertel and colleagues1describe the effectiveness of one such test, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), when it is used to detect recurrence after colon cancer surgery. Carcinoembryonic antigen, which is present in blood during fetal life, falls to very low levels in most adults, and circulates in high concentrations inKeywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Carcinoembryonic AntigensPublished by Springer Nature ,1974