Abstract: In order to evaluate combined serum tumor markers in the diagnosis of gastrointestinal malignant tumor, serum CA242 and CEA were concomitantly determined by ELISA in 95 patients with gastrointestinal malignant tumor, 90 patients with benign diseases and 30 healthy blood donors. In general, serum CA242 and CEA levels were increased more significantly in malignant tumor group than in the other two groups. The sensitivities of CA242 and CEA in gastrointestinal malignant tumor were 43.16% and 45.26% respectively, while the combined markers was 62.11%, which was significantly higher than either of the one marker(P<0.01). The specificity of the combined markers was 73.55% including colon tumors(72.41%), gastric carcinoma(69.23%), hepatic carcinoma (57.14%), pancreatic carcinoma (55.56%), which were all much higher than esophageal carcinoma(18.18%). These data suggest that the combined determination of serum CA242 and CEA can increase the sensitivity in diagnosis of gastrointestinal malignant tumors.

Key words: gastrointestinal tumor, CA242