Abstract
Serum CA19-9 was studied clinicopathologicaly and tissue CA19-9 was immunohistologically by the enzyme antibody method in 271 (241 resected) patients with primary and solitary gastric cancer. In 67 serum CA19-9 positive cases (47 resection cases), the positive rate and measurement value increased with advance in the stage of the disease. Compared to with CA19-9 negative cases, the positive cases included fewer curative resection cases. Immunohistological staining revealed tissue positive rate of 70.2% in CA19-9 positive cases, with significant difference. The poorly differentiated type and cytoplasmic types were predominant in CA19-9 positive cases, and the positive rate increased with increase in invasion depth into the gastric wall, the degree of vascular invasion, lymphnode metastasis, and clinical stage. The 5-year survival rate in the serum and tissue CA19-9 positive cases was lower than that in negative cases. There was a tendency toward a low 5-year survival rate in cytoplasmic type cancers. The findings suggest that measurement of serum and tissue CA19-9 is useful and clinically meaningful to indicate the degree of advance and malignancy of gastric cancer, decision making for intensive treatment, and prognosis.
