Carcinoembryonic antigen by radioimmunoassay in the detection of recurrence during long-term followup of female genital cancer

In the study, radioimmunoassay for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was used in 75 patients with female genital cancer, who were followed up on a long-term basis. These patients were assessed for the following disease status at each visit: free of disease, residual disease, or recurrence of disease. They also had periodic determinations of CEA in serum performed independently. The majority of patients who remained free of disease showed a rapid disappearance of CEA after treatment, whereas those who had residual disease continued to show persistence of CEA in serum. The patients who developed recurrence showed a re-appearance of CEA after its initial disappearance; the mean time interval between re-appearance of CEA and detection of clinical recurrence was 10.7 weeks. The CEA assay is considered to be a useful aid to the assessment of subsequent behavior of the tumor after primary treatment.