Within-subject variation of carcinoembryonic antigen in colorectal cancer -- application of reference of change values and individual reference ranges to patient follow-up.

Abstract

Dynamic interpretation of results is an alternative approach to the conventional cut-off procedure. Reference change limit is a valuable reference point to interpret dynamically tumour marker values when only very few serial results can be obtained from a patient after treatment. In this paper, a reference change limit of 2.0 microg/l was estimated for carcinoembryonic antigen in patients with complete remission of colorectal cancer. This figure means that a difference greater than 2.0 microg/l has at least a chance of being statistically significant (at 0.05 probability). As complementary information to the reference change limits, with more than four successive results, a simple time series model can be used to obtain predictive limits for the next observation.

• Authors: J Mora, J M Queraltó
• Journal: European journal of clinical chemistry and clinical biochemistry : journal of the Forum of European Clinical Chemistry Societies (Eur J Clin Chem Clin Biochem) Vol. 35 Issue 6 Pg. 453-7 (Jun 1997) ISSN: 0939-4974 [Print] Germany
• PMID: 9228329 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Carcinoembryonic Antigen

Topics

• Adenocarcinoma (immunology)
• Adult
• Aged
• Analysis of Variance
• Biometry
• Blood Chemical Analysis (statistics & numerical data)
• Carcinoembryonic Antigen (blood)
• Colorectal Neoplasms (immunology)
• Female
• Follow-Up Studies
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Predictive Value of Tests
• Reference Values