Brief Communication Carcino-Embryonic Antigen (CEA) in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma and Chronic Nasopharyngitis

Abstract

When carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) was discovered in carcinoma of the colon and fetal colon mucosa (Gold and Friedman, 1965), it was thought to be a specific antigen and also a specific marker of human digestive system and its carcinomas. Since then, additional case reports indicated that CEA was also present in carcinoma of various organs such as lung, breast, ovary, uterine cervix, and urinary bladder. Thus far no report has evaluated the nasopharynx, where EBV appears to replicate, or nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which is suspected of being caused by EBV. With the use of the immunoperoxidase method, the presence and the distribution of CEA in nasopharyngeal epithelium in relation to inflammation and carcinomatous change were studied in our laboratory.