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CEA is an Independent Prognostic Indicator that is Associated with Reduced Survival and Liver Metastases in SCLC

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Abstract

Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is classified into two stages, limited-stage small-cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC) and extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), with ES-SCLC being associated with reduced survival. However, disease stage alone is not a very precise predictor of survival time. The aim of this study is to search for a prognostic indicator that can be used in conjunction with the staging system in SCLC. We performed a prospective analysis of 116 patients with SCLC undergoing standard chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy. Expression levels of 12 tumor markers were measured at the time of diagnosis by a commercial protein chip system, and patients were followed up for a maximum of 54 weeks. CEA was the most frequently detected tumor marker in SCLC, with 32.8% of samples scoring positive, and was also the only marker that correlated with overall survival. The average survival time was 16.78 months for patients with CEA below 5 ng/ml and 11.4 months for patients with CEA above 5 ng/ml (P < 0.001). In contrast, no association was found between tumor stage and overall survival. CEA expression was independent of tumor stage (P = 0.930). CEA is an independent prognostic factor that can be used in conjunction with disease stage in SCLC.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (to Xueqin Yang) (No. 30801367) and the Third Military Medical University foundation (to Xueqin Yang) (No. 2007XG36).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Center, Daping Hospital and Research Institute of Surgery, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400042, China

    Xueqin Yang, Dong Wang, Zhenzhou Yang, Yi Qing, Zhimin Zhang, Ge Wang, Zhixiang Yang & Zhengbo Wang

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  1. Xueqin Yang
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  2. Dong Wang
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  3. Zhenzhou Yang
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  4. Yi Qing
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  5. Zhimin Zhang
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  6. Ge Wang
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  7. Zhixiang Yang
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  8. Zhengbo Wang
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Correspondence to Dong Wang or Zhenzhou Yang.

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Yang, X., Wang, D., Yang, Z. et al. CEA is an Independent Prognostic Indicator that is Associated with Reduced Survival and Liver Metastases in SCLC. Cell Biochem Biophys 59, 113–119 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-010-9121-0

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