Abstract:

Objective: To determine the association of CA-125 levels with the peritoneal dissemination among the patients of colo-rectal carcinoma at a tertiary care surgical oncology unit of Pakistan Study Design: Observational study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Surgical Oncology, Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi. Duration of ten months, from Jan 2018 to Oct 2018. Patients and Methods: A total of 83 cases of colorectal carcinoma were included in the study, which were diagnosed by consultant oncologist after relevant histological and radiological investigations. Peritoneal dissemination was confirmed during the surgery. CA-125 levels were assessed before the surgery and cut off of 35U/mL was used. Relationship of age, gender, raised CA-125, tumor metastasis and tumor differentiation was assessed with the presence of peritoneal dissemination among the patients suffering from colo-rectal cancer. Results: Fifty nine patients were males and 24 were females. Mean age of the patients was 51.17 (±3.395). Out of 83 patients of colo-rectal cancer, 37.3% showed the presence of peritoneal dissemination while 62.7% had no peritoneal dissemination at the time of surgery. Forty one patients had raised levels of CA-125 while 42 had levels within the normal range. After applying the logistic regression we found that raised levels of CA-125 and metastatic illness had significant association with the presence of peritoneal dissemination among the patients of colo-rectal cancer. Conclusion: CA-125 concentration emerged as a strong predictor of peritoneal dissemination of colo-rectal cancer in our study analysis. Routine checking of levels of this marker among the patients of Colon cancer may help in early recognition of the advancement of disease and help the surgical oncologists to manage it in a more effective way.

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