In this week's cover paper of Oncotarget (Volume 12, Issue 11) entitled, "CEA as a blood-based biomarker in anal cancer," researchers from The University of Texas – MD Anderson Cancer Center, Terasaki Foundation of Biomedical Sciences, and Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center conducted a retrospective, single-institution study to determine the correlation between carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels (a commonly employed assay for patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma) and biopsy-proven Squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (SCCA).
The researchers retrospectively analyzed 219 patients who were treated at The University of Texas – MD Anderson Cancer Center between 2013 and 2020. The team collected demographic data, clinical history, and CEA levels, including gender, ethnicity, stage at initial diagnosis of SCCA, HPV status, HIV status, and smoking history. Patients with coexisting second primary cancers besides SCCA were excluded from their analysis.
The median age of patients in the study was 56 years old, 74% were female, and 89% were of Caucasian ethnicity. At the time of the initial CEA measurement, patients were at various stages of SCCA, with 39% in stage III and 41% with metastatic disease to distant organs. 67% of patients had currently or previously tested positive for HPV infection. Statistical analysis was calculated using the summarized demographic and clinical characteristics of patients as means with associated standard deviations.
“Here we report the largest series detailing the relevance of CEA as a biomarker for patients with SCCA.”
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DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27959
Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/27959/text/
Correspondence to - Van K. Morris - vkmorris@mdanderson.org
Keywords - carcinoembryonic antigen, squamous cell carcinoma of anal canal, anal cancer, biomarkers, HPV
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