Cytodiagnosis of cervical smears and serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) following radiation therapy for cancer of the uterine cervix

Serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were serially determined and cytodiagnosis of cervical smears was made in 6 patients with advanced squamous cell cancer of the cervix (aged from 66 to 81 years) undergoing radiation therapy. In a patient with an elevated pretreatment serum level of CEA, serial CEA levels tended to decrease with increasing radiation doses, but cytodiagnostic findings remained unchanged. In the other 5 patients with normal or slightly elevated pretreatment serum levels of CEA, cytodiagnostic findings improved in response to radiation doses. In one of the 6 patients, CEA of the tumor cells was stained well in association with the elevated serum CEA level, suggesting some relationship between serum CEA levels and atypical tumor cells exposed to x-rays. Serum CEA determinations are thus considered useful in the follow-up of cancer patients treated by radiation therapy. (Namekawa, K.)