Clinical significance of CA19-9 in diagnosis of digestive tract tumors

AIM: To evaluate the clinical value of CA19-9 in diagnosing and differentiating gastrointestinal tumors and in monitoring patients treated surgically.

METHODS: Patients with gastric cancer (n = 70), colorectal cancer (n = 90), pancreatic cancer (n = 7), esophageal cancer (n = 10) and benign disorders (n = 30), and normal adults (n = 111; used as healthy controls), were studied. Fasting blood samples were obtained from each study participant. The serum CA19-9 concentration was measured with radioimmunoassay.

RESULTS: The mean CA19-9 level was significantly higher in patients with gastric cancer (170.69 ± 91.45 kU/L) and patients with colorectal cancer (87.21 ± 39.55 kU/L) than in the healthy controls (11.254 ± 6.00 kU/L). Compared with the healthy controls, the CA19-9 level was also much higher in patients with pancreatic cancer (1266.58 ± 521.31 kU/L) (P < 0.01). However, the CA19-9 concentrations in patients with non-recurrent gastric cancer (12.63 ± 3.62 kU/L), colorectal cancer (14.14 ± 3.26 kU/L) and benign disorders (14.23 ± 2.60 kU/L) were statistically similar to those in the healthy controls (P > 0.05). The demarcation value of CA19-9 between negative and positive was < 31.0 kU/L. The sensitivity of CA19-9 for gastric, colorectal, pancreatic and esophageal cancers and for gastrointestinal benign disorders was 47.3%, 50.0%, 83.3%, 20.0% and 0%, respectively. The specificity of CA19-9 for digestive system malignant diseases was 100% for all.