The potential utility of serum CA 72-4 as a marker for stage IV esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Abstract

Adenocarcinoma of the esophagus has one of the fastest growing incidence rates of all cancers. The treatment and the prognosis of these patients depend mainly on the clinical stage of their disease. The purpose of this study was to see if CA72-4 can potentially be used as a marker for staging advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma. We enrolled a consecutive sample of 21 patients with biopsy-proven esophageal adenocarcinoma. Serum CA72-4 was then obtained from all patients and compared to the clinical stage of these patients. CA 72-4 at cut-off value of > or = 7 U/ml has a high diagnostic performance in detecting stage IV esophageal adenocarcinoma: sensitivity (86%), specificity (93%), NPV(0.93), PPV(0.86), LR+ (12), LR- (0.15), and AUC of 8.5 (CI; 0.62-1.0). Clinicians may use serum CA72-41 levels as a predictor of stage IV disease. It may also have utility in reassessing the likelihood of metastatic disease.