Carcinoembryonic antigen in gynecologic patients. II. Immunohistological expression.

Certain tumors of the female genital tract have a very probability of expressing CEA activity. These include endocervical carcinomas and ovarian Brenner tumors. This information may be helpful in allowing one to distinguish among several diagnostic possibilities on a given biopsy. CEA detection apparently fails to distinguish between endometrial hyperplasias versus endometrial carcinomas. Gonadal stromal tumors of the ovary are generally negative, whereas the common epithelial tumors (depending on the histological type) have a reasonable probability of having detectable antigen. Since plasma CEA levels have had a demonstrated usefulness in following patients who were known to have elevated CEA levels prior to the removal of their primary tumor in the endometrium, ovary, and cervix, it is valuable to have an estimate of probability that a tumor will express CEA in evaluating the results of plasma radioimmunoassays for this antigen.