The authors analyse the clinical utility of CEA in thediagnosis, prognosis. and treatment of patients withcolorrectal cancer. as regards their personal experiencew1th a systematic protocol which includes preoperativedosage and serial postoperative dosage every 3 months.This analysis shows: a) the poor utility of CEA as adiagnostic method beca use of its low sensitivity (50. 8%). b)The 1mportance of h1gh preoperative CEA in Dukes 8 andC stages as a bad prognosis sign, and specially theabsence of post--operative decrease to normal figures inthose cases resected with curative intention. e) The higheffect1V1ty of permanent postoperative CEA rise fordetection of tumoral reccurrence with a sensitivity of 84%and a negilg1ble number of false positives.The_ir_sti/1 limited exeprience prevents them from givingan op,n1o_n on the most conflictive issue: this sensitivity·scontnbut1on towards the achievement of an effectivetreatment of the so--diagnosed reccurrences.

Los autores analizan la utilidad clínica del antígenocarcmoembrronarro (CEA) en el diagnóstico. pronóstico ytratamiento de los pacientes con cáncer colorrectal deacuerdo a su experiencia personal con un protocol