Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) in Portal Blood in Colorectal Cancer Patients Correlation of Immunohistochemical Staining

The Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels in portal blood in 87 colorectal patients were studied in correlation with the immunoreactivity of tumor CEA stained by immunoperoxidase method in order to examine how serum CEA increases. Portal blood CEA increased by operative maneuver. Portal blood CEA was correlated with the Duke's staging, and revealed higher positive rates than CEA in peripheral blood in each stage. The amount of CEA in well differentiated and moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma was higher than that of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. However, moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma revealed the highest level of portal blood CEA (p<0.05). Significant increase of portal CEA was observed when CEA was found in cytoplasm and stroma immunohistochemically besides in strongly positive stain, and when cancer was proved pathologically to invade over the intestinal wall. This study suggests that how CEA is transported from the tumor to the portal vein which is the most important decisive factor of the CEA level in peripheral blood.