Abstract
In order to find an index for early diagnosis of post operative recurrence in stage IV gastric cancer, we studied in serum CD16, IAP and CEA.
Seventy operated patients with stage IV gastric cancer were divided into those survived for more than one year after the operation (group A; 29) and those died within one year (group B; 41), and compared for time-dependent changes in serum CD16, IAP and CEA. There was no significant difference in preoperative abnormal level in the 3 parameters between both groups. While, postoperative time-dependent changes were minimal in group A, but showed an increasing tendency in group B. In this study, recurrence-positive symptoms were designated in CD16 by more than 10% increase during 3 months; in IAP by more than 500μg/ml; and in CEA by more than 10 ng/ml. In 16 patients of group A who experienced clinical recurrence, 9 patients were CD 16-positive, 5 were IAP-positive, and 10 were CEA positive at the time of clinical manifestation of recurrence or before the manifestation. In addition, 15 patients had at least one positive symptom among of them at the time of or before recurrence. Recurrence-free cases did not show any such findings.
These results suggest that estimation of these three parameters may be useful for early diagnosis of recurrence in patients with gastric cancer.
