Table 1 -.

Characteristics of patients with low and high CEA levels

	Preoperative CEA levels		p
	≥ 5 ng/ml (n = 47)	< 5 ng/ml (n = 67)
Age
< 60 years	5	7	0.89
≥ 60 years	42	60
Gender
Male	27	43	0.46
Female	20	24
Tumor size (cm)
< 5 cm	20	38	0.16
≥ 5 cm	27	29
Primary tumor location
Colon	30	37	0.35
Rectum	17	30
Histologic differentiation
Well	4	11	0.053
Moderate	35	53
Poor	8	3
Depth of tumor invasion
T1	2	4	0.017*
T2	2	18
T3	40	41
T4	3	4
Lymph node metastases
N0	24	48	0.041*
N1	13	14
N2	10	5
TNM Staging system
I	3	21	0.01*
II	22	27
III	22	19
Postoperative relapse
Absent	18	25	0.018*
Present	23	22