Causes of high carcinoembryonic antigen

Causes of carcinoembryonic antigen elevation. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is an acidic glycoprotein with human embryonic antigen characteristics. It exists on the surface of cancer cells differentiated from endoderm cells. It is a structural protein of cell membrane. It is formed in cytoplasm, secreted outside cells through cell membrane, and then enters surrounding body fluids. Therefore, it can be detected in serum, cerebrospinal fluid, milk, gastric juice, pleural effusion, urine, feces and other body fluids and excretions. CEA elevation is more common in colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer, breast cancer, medullary thyroid cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, urinary system tumors, etc. However, 15%~53% of patients with smoking, pregnancy and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, intestinal diverticulitis, rectal polyps, colitis, pancreatitis, liver cirrhosis, hepatitis, lung diseases, etc. serum CEA will also increase, so CEA is not a specific marker of malignant tumors, only auxiliary value in diagnosis. In addition, CEA level was related to the following factors: 1. It was related to the early, middle and late stages of cancer, and the higher the CEA value was, the higher the positive rate was, but the positive rate was not very high. 2. It was related to tumor metastasis, and the concentration of CEA also increased after metastasis. 3. It was related to the tissue type of cancer, adenocarcinoma was the most sensitive, followed by squamous cell carcinoma and poorly differentiated carcinoma. This indicated that CEA was a differentiated antigen, and the higher the differentiation degree, the higher the positive rate was. 4. It is related to the improvement of the condition. The serum CEA concentration decreases when the condition improves, and increases when the condition worsens. Continuous follow-up detection of CEA can be used for observation of curative effect and prognosis after malignant tumor surgery, and can also be used for observation of curative effect of chemotherapy patients.