A Case Report of Recurrent Gastric Carcinoma Compared with the Doubling Times of Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen Possibly Originated from Liver and Lung Metastatic Lesions

Yasuhiko Umehara, Taizou Kimura, Masayuki Yoshida, Noriyuki Oba, Shunji Sakuramachi, Hisao Matsuda, Naoki Takabayashi, Hidetoshi Wada, Yukio Harada

The First Department of Surgery, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine

We experienced a case of recurrent gastric carcinoma and calculated and compared with the doubling time of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA DT) in liver and lung metastases. The patient was a 58-year-old woman who underwent subtotal gastrectomy and pancreatoduodenectomy for Borrmann 3 type gastric cancer of the pylorus. The elevated serum CEA level observed one year postoperatively led to partial hepatectomy under the diagnosis of liver metastasis. The CEA DT was then 40 days. One year and eight months thereafter, however, the serum CEA level increased again, leading to partial lung resection under the diagnosis of lung metastasis. The CEA DT then 84 days, twice that for liver metastasis. Metastatic lesions were compared for growth rate, assuming that the tumor marker doubling time reflects tumor growth rate to a certain extent. The results suggested different growth rates according to the organ of metastasis even in the same case.

Key words
liver and lung metastases of gastric cancer, doubling time of carcinoembryonic antigen, growth rate of gastric cancer metastasis

Reprint requests
Yasuhiko Umehara The First Department of Surgery, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine
3600 Handa-cho, Hamamatsu, 431-31 JAPAN

Accepted
November 20, 1991

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