Carcinoembryonic antigen in hereditary adenomatosis of the colon and rectum.

Hereditary adenomatosis of the colon and rectum (ACR) invariably leads to malignant transformation unless the patients undergo prophylactic operations. The serum level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was determined in 130 individuals belonging to different ACR-families. Fifty-six of them were operated upon with colectomy, 27 affected individuals were still not operated on, and 47 were unaffected first degree relatives. Around 20 percent of the patients in each of these groups had moderately raised CEA serum levels compared to unrelated healthy subjects. Since the serum values were low or only moderately raised and occurred in all groups, the determination of serum levels cannot be generally used to indicate malignant transformation of adenomas. However, assays of the tissue CEA content in six histologically verified adenomas showed values similar to those of overt colonic carcinomas. This opens up stimulating possibilities of investigating the CEA activity in serum and tissues of chosen individuals with ACR.