The CEA is useful for prognosis, staging and follow up. It is useless for diagnosis. "The CEA test has a specificity of between 30-80% and it is not recommende

The CEA is useful for prognosis, staging and follow up. It is useless for diagnosis. "The CEA test has a specificity of between 30-80% and it is not recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) for the diagnosis of early colorectal cancer" http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/carcinoembryonic-antigen-cea http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/carcinoembryonic-antigen-cea Causes of false postive CEA include but are not confined to: "Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Pancreatitis. Liver disease. Tobacco use can lead to elevated CEA levels. (CEA is elevated in 19% of smokers and only 3% of the non-smoking healthy population.) Diverticulitis. Hepatitis. Peptic ulcers. Hypothyroidism. Cirrhosis of the liver. COPD. Lung infection. Pleural effusions. Biliary obstruction. Treatment with oral 5-FU. High serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (sGPT) levels. Non-malignant liver disease, including cirrhosis, chronic active hepatitis.[6] Chronic kidney disease. Pancreatic disease.[7] Inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis, irritable bowel syndrome. Respiratory diseases, eg pleural inflammation, pneumonia. Smoking. Ageing.[8] Atherosclerosis "http://www.kantrowitz.com/cancerpoints/tumormarkerfalsepositives.html http://www.kantrowitz.com/cancerpoints/tumormarkerfalseposit...