Quantitative RT-PCR with CEA and CK-20 mRNA as target markers was introduced for peritoneal lavage diagnosis in 141 patients with clinically advanced gastric cancer from 9 different institutes.
Associations between FITC, CEA, NLR, foxp3+ Treg lymphocytes (both 1- and 3-year OS), CA 19-9, or VEGF and GC OS were supported by highly suggestive evidence, however, the results should be interpreted cautiously due to inadequate methodological quality as deemed by AMSTAR 2.0.
CEA protein and mRNA levels in peritoneal lavage show a high diagnostic accuracy and may help accurately predict the peritoneal recurrence after curative resection of gastric cancer.
So far the value of conventional tumour markers such as Ca72-4 or carcinoembryonic antigen is limited, and even markers developed from molecular biological studies on the carcinogenesis of gastric cancer, such as E-cadherin and others, have not proved to be of adequate sensitivity and specificity to allow the early detection of gastric cancer.
Additionally, for females with gastric body-located GC the levels of CEA and CA72-4 were significantly higher than those in male patients with the same type of tumor (p=0.047 and p=0.048, respectively).
The positive prediction rates of circulating miR-21 in GC stages I to IV were all around 90%, while those of CA199 and CEA were around or less than 50%.
Combination of L-3-phosphoserine phosphatase and CEA using real-time RT-PCR improves accuracy in detection of peritoneal micrometastasis of gastric cancer.