Background:There were few studies on the correlation between the evaluated tumor markers and lymph node metastasis.
Aim:In this study, we aimed to explore the correlation between the CA724, CA242, CA199, CEA and the lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer and assess the prognostic value of them in different N stage patients.
Methods:We respectively analyzed the correlation between serum level of CA724, CA242, CA199, CEA and lymph node metastasis in 1501 gastric cancer patients.
Results:Lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer was related with tumor location, Bormann type, tumor size, histological type, depth of invasion and TNM stage(P<0.05). The value of CA724, CA242, CA199 and CEA were positively correlated with the metastastic lymph nodes counts and pN stage (P<0.05). The later the N stage was, the level of tumor and the positive rates of tumor markers were higher(P<0.05). In comparing with single tumor markers, the positive rates of tumor markers combination were higher. The combination of CA724+CA242+CA199+CEA had highest positive rate. In some pN stage, patients with higher CEA, CA199, CA724 and CA242 inclined to have poor prognosis.
Conclusions:The tumor makers CA724, CA242, CA199 and CEA were evaluated significantly in the gastric patients with later N stage. The combination of these four tumor markers maybe prefer diagnostic index of gastric cancer and its lymph node metastasis. These tumor markers can be a possible indicator of poorer prognosis in different N stage patients.