Abstract
Introduction: Colorectal cancer is the third most common malignancy of all cancer patients and the fourth leading cause of death in all cancer patients in the world. In a previous study at H. Adam Malik Central General Hospital, it was found that the rectum was the highest site of colorectal cancer.
To diagnosed the rectal cancer, it is necessary to provide non-invasive markers to detect early rectal cancer, such as Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). This study aimed to examine the difference in CEA levels according to the degree of histopathology of rectal adenocarcinoma, so that the CEA level can be used as a predictor of histopathologic degree in patients with rectal adenocarcinoma.
Methods: This study is an descriptive-analytic study with cross sectional design. The data were taken from the patient's medical records. Samples of this study were taken in a total sampling of patients who had been treated at Digestive Surgery Clinic in H. Adam Malik Central General Hospital Medan from January 2011 to December 2015 with rectal adenocarcinoma that met the inclusion and exclusion criterias. The data obtained then analyzed by SPSS statistical software ver .20.
Results: During the period January 2011 to December 2015 we found 36 rectal cancer patients who met the inclusion criteria and became the study samples. A total of 19 (52.8%) patients had well differentiated histopathologic result, 15 (41.7%) others was moderately differentiated and 2 (5.6%) remaining was poorly differentiated. Kruskal Wallis test obtained p value = 0.048, so it can be concluded that there is a relationship between CEA levels before treatment with tumor histopathology in patients with rectal cancer.
Conclusion: This study obtained differences in CEA levels according to histopathology degree of rectal adenocarcinoma.