CEA Antibody / Carcinoembryonic Antigen

CEA is synthesized during development in the fetal gut and is re-expressed in increased amounts in intestinal carcinomas and several other tumors. Antibody to CEA is useful in detecting early foci of gastric carcinoma and in distinguishing pulmonary adenocarcinomas (60-70% are CEA+) from pleural mesotheliomas (rarely or weakly CEA+). Anti-CEA positivity is seen in adenocarcinomas from the lung, colon, stomach, esophagus, pancreas, gallbadder, urachus, salivary gland, ovary, and endocervix.