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CA72–4: A new tumour marker for gastric cancer

To date, tumour markers for gastric cancer have proved unreliable. In this study the value of a new serum marker, CA 72–4, was compared with the serum activities of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and CA19‐9 in a consecutive series of patients with gastric cancer. The results show that the CAT2‐4 assay is significantly better at separating stage I and II disease from normal controls (P < 0·01) than CEA (n.s.) or CA19‐9 (n.s.). CA72‐4 also gave better differentiation between patients with positive and negative nodes (P < 0·01) and between those who were serosa positive and negative (P < 0·01). CEA differentiated between patients with positive and negative nodes (P < 0·05) but CA19‐9 could not. CA19‐9 and CEA could not discriminate between patients who were serosa positive and negative. In this study, at a specificity of 95 per cent, the sensitivities of CEA, C A19‐9 and CA72‐4 were 0·25, 0·41 and 0·94 respectively. These preliminary findings indicate that CA 72‐4 is a reliable tumour marker of disease stage and activity in gastric cancer. Further longitudinal studies are required for full evaluation of its clinical utility.