Tuberc Respir Dis.  1988 Jun;35(2):92-102. 10.4046/trd.1988.35.2.92.

Measurement of Carcinoembryonic Antigen and Ferritin Levels in the Serum and Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid in Patients with Pulmonary Disease

• KMID: 2528610
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4046/trd.1988.35.2.92

Abstract

To evaluate the usefulness of both carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and ferritin levels as tumor markers in the serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BA LF), CEA and ferritin levels were determined in the serum and BALF of 18 patients with benign pulmonary disease, 32 patients with malignant pulmonary disease diagnosed clinically and pathologically and 15 normal controls in each sex were measured with serum CEA and ferritin. The results obtained were summarized as follows; 1) There was a significant increase in the concentration of serum CEA and ferritin levels in malignant pulmonary disease group compared with those of the other two groups (each P < 0.001). 2) The malignant pulmonary disease group was higher than the other two groups in the concentration of CEA and ferritin levels in BALF (each P<0.01). 3) There was a significant increase in the concentration of CEA levels in serum and BALF in adenocarcinoma group compared with those squamous cell group (each P < 0.05). 4) The concentration of serum CEA in the bronchogenic carcinoma stage III and the extrathoracic bronchogenic carcinoma group was shown to be significantly higher than those of stage I and II, and the intrathoracic bronchogenic carcinoma group, respectively (each P < 0.05). 5) There was no any significant influence of smoking habits on the levels of both CEA and ferritin in the serum and BALF in patients with benign and malignant pulmonary disease (each P >0.05). In conclusion, the determin ation of CEA and ferritin levels in the serum and BALF was shown to be useful as tumor markers for differentiating between benign and malignant pulmonary disease.