Blood Measurement of Carcinoembryonic Antigen Level for Detecting Recurrence of Colorectal Cancer

Clinical Question: What is the trade-off between sensitivity and specificity at specific carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) thresholds for detecting recurrent colorectal cancer? Bottom Line: To detect colorectal cancer recurrence, the sensitivity of CEA ranges from 68% for a threshold of 10 µg/L to 82% for a threshold of 2.5 µg/L and the specificity ranges from 97% for a threshold of 10 µg/L to 80% for a threshold of 2.5 µg/L.