Usefulness of Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) in Evaluating Response to Chemotherapy in Patients with Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract Background Lung cancer represents the top cause of death and the most common cancer worldwide. In the United States, lung cancer is the second most common cancer accounts for 12.9% of new cancer diagnoses and 27.4 of all cancer deaths. Non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents up to 80% of all lung cancers which divided into two major types: squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and nonsquamous cell carcinoma (NSCC, including adenocarcinoma, large-cell carcinoma, and other subtypes). Aim of the Work To assess the correlation between CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen) levels and response to platinum-based chemotherapy assessed by RECIST criteria of advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients. Patients and Methods This is a prospective study conducted between November 2018 and July 2019, 30 consecutive patients with advanced NSCLC previously treated with at least one line of chemotherapy were prospectively enrolled in thoracic malignancies department in Ain-Shams university hospital and Ismailia Teaching Oncology Hospital. The study was approved by the ethics committee at the faculty of medicine, Ain Shams University. Results In our study we evaluated response by CTs according to RECIST criteria and considered patients with clinical response (PR and SD) as responders and patients with PD as non-responders. Conclusion Our study found correlation between CEA and radiological response and patients with CEA reduction equal or more than 18.5% have objective response to treatment with Sensitivity and specificity 66.67% and 85.71% respectively.