Brief Article
Copyright ©2013 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 28, 2013; 19(32): 5302-5308
Published online Aug 28, 2013. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v19.i32.5302
High level of preoperative carbohydrate antigen 19-9 is a poor survival predictor in gastric cancer
A Ra Choi, Jun Chul Park, Jie-Hyun Kim, Sung Kwan Shin, Sang Kil Lee, Yong Chan Lee, Jae Bock Chung
A Ra Choi, Jun Chul Park, Jie-Hyun Kim, Sung Kwan Shin, Sang Kil Lee, Yong Chan Lee, Jae Bock Chung, Department of Internal Medicine and Institute of Gastroenterology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, South Korea
Author contributions: Choi AR and Park JC contributed equally to this work; Choi AR, Park JC and Chung JB designed the study and performed the majority of experiments; Kim JH, Shin SK, Lee SK and Lee YC identified and recruited patients for the study and undertook the experiments; Kim JH and Shin SK were responsible for data collection, data extraction, data interpretation and manuscript drafting; Lee SK and Lee YC performed bioinformatic analysis of the sequencing data and performed statistical analyses; Choi AR and Park JC co-wrote the manuscript and were also involved in editing the manuscript; all authors reviewed and agreed on the final version.
Correspondence to: Jae Bock Chung, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine and Institute of Gastroenterology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-752, South Korea. jbchung@yuhs.ac
Telephone: +82-2-22281945 Fax: +82-2-3936884
Received: May 16, 2013
Revised: July 10, 2013
Accepted: July 17, 2013
Published online: August 28, 2013
Processing time: 102 Days and 23.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The exact functions of preoperative carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 in stomach cancer have yet to be uncovered. We sought to assess the clinical significance of preoperatively high levels of CA 19-9 in patients with gastric cancer and aimed to investigate the relationship between serum levels of CA 19-9 and disease-free survival and overall survival (OS). We conclude that OS in gastric cancer patients with elevated CA 19-9 levels was lower than that in patients with non-elevated levels. Serum CA 19-9 can be considered an independent prognostic factor in predicting OS in patients anticipating surgery for gastric cancer.