Carcinoembryonic antigen in breast cancer: a retrospective study

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is an oncofoetal antigen which has been demonstrated in various tumour tissues and investigated as a "tumour marker". Conflicting reports have been made concerning the relationship between the presence of CEA in breast carcinoma tissue and the prognosis of the patient. The present study was undertaken in an attempt to clarify this relationship. An immunohistochemical technique was employed in the investigation of 138 cases of primary breast carcinoma, presented at Dryburn Hospital, Durham, and treated by mastectomy. The subsequent progress of these patients was then investigated, survival estimated by the life table method and comparisons made by the log rank test. No relationship was found between the presence of CEA in the tumour and patient survival for up to 8 years post surgery. Similar investigations detected no relationship between the presence of CEA and the age, weight and menopausal status of the patient or the presence of synchronous lymph node metastases, or the histological grade or size of the tumour. It therefore appears that detection of CEA in breast carcinomas is of no prognostic significance.