Carcinoembryonic antigen production associated with an osteolytic meningioma. Case report.

An elevated serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) without evidence of neoplasia was noted in an 84-year-old woman. She subsequently developed a lytic skull lesion, which at surgery proved to be an atypical meningioma. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that this tumor was producing CEA. This aggressive meningioma required two further resections and adjuvant radiotherapy in the following 18 months. Serum elevation of CEA has been reported only twice in association with meningiomas; both of those tumors were of the secretory subtype.