THE VALUE OF TUMOR MARKER EXPRESSION IN THE PATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS AND PROGNOSIS EVALUATION OF GASTRIC CANCER PATIENTS

Yifei Chen, Ang Qin, Yingnan Sun, Kuang Jize, Yong Qiu, Congying Yang^* 

Department of Endoscopic Diagnosis and Treatment Center, Hunan Cancer Hospital, Changsha, PR China

Objective: To investigate the value of serum tumor markers’ expression in pathological diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of patients with gastric cancer.

Methods: 126 patients with gastric cancer admitted to our hospital from May 2015 to August 2018 were selected as the observation group, and 125 healthy subjects who took a physical examination in our hospital were used as the control group. The diagnostic value of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199), gastrointestinal cancer antigen (CA242) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in patients with gastric cancer were observed in the two groups of subjects. The patients were followed up for 3 years, and the survival and death of the patients with gastric cancer were observed during the three-year period, and the survival time of the patients was analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier survival curve.

Results: The levels of serum CEA, CA199, CA242 and AFP in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The diagnostic value analysis of the above indicators on gastric cancer patients using the ROC curve showed that CEA, CA199, CA242 and AFP have high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of gastric cancer. In the follow-up of the observation group, there were 78 patients who survived for three years, and 48 patients died, among which the CEA, CA199, CA242 and AFP levels for the patients who died were significantly higher than those for the surviving patients, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that CEA, CA199 and CA242 indicators had higher sensitivity and specificity for the surviving patients, while AFP had higher sensitivity but lower specificity.

Conclusion: The indicators of CEA, CA199, CA242 and AFP have high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of gastric cancer patients. CEA, CA199 and CA242 have high predictive value for surviving patients, but AFP has poor relative predictive value.