CEA and CA19-9 measurement as a monitoring parameter in metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) under palliative first-line chemotherapy with weekly 24-hour infusion of high-dose 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and folinic acid (FA)

Summary Background There have been contradictory reports on the benefit of CEA and CA 19-9 measurements in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer using palliative chemotherapy. The object of this study was to examine the diagnostic accuracy of monitoring of palliative chemotherapy by means of CEA and CA19-9. Patients and methods The tumour markers CEA and CA 19-9 were subjected to serial measurement in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (n = 90) using palliative first-line chemotherapy with weekly 24-hour infusion of high-dose 5-FU with FA and were compared with objective response according to WHO criteria. 85 patients could be evaluated. 43 patients (51%) initially had elevated…