CEA monitoring in colorectal cancer is not a waste of time

This “cautionary tale” about follow-up of patients after treatment of colorectal cancer drew attention to newly published data from a trial started in 1982 that showed “no hint of a survival advantage associated with knowledge of CEA [carcinoembryonic antigen].1 2 The article said: “The Follow-up After Colorectal Surgery (FACS) trial, recently published in JAMA , confirmed the lack of survival benefit, finding a higher death rate in patients who were intensively monitored.”3 As lead authors of the JAMA …