Persistent elevation of carcinoembryonic antigen as first presentation of a medullary thyroid carcinoma.
Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is still the most widely used tumour marker for gastrointestinal cancer. CEA was originally thought to be a specific marker for colorectal cancer, but it turned out to be a non-specific marker for further studies. CEA levels can be elevated in breast, lung and liver cancers, among others, including medullary thyroid cancer. The authors report a case of a 73-year-old woman who had a right hemicolectomy for an ascending colon adenocarcinoma and showed a persistent elevation in the CEA marker during follow-up. After several imaging tests, recurrence of the colon cancer was not found, but the presence of thyroid nodules had been detected. The diagnosis of a medullary thyroid carcinoma was made after the finding of a high value of calcitonin. The patient had a total thyroidectomy with resection of the central and lateral lymph nodes.
['Martins|Aires|A|', 'Gonçalves|Alvaro|A|', 'Almeida|Teresa|T|', 'Midões|Alberto|A|']
D000368:Aged D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle D002116:Calcitonin D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen D018278:Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine D003113:Colonoscopy D005260:Female D005773:Gastroscopy D006801:Humans D000072078:Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms D013965:Thyroidectomy
endocrine cancer head and neck surgery screening (oncology) thyroid disease