A positive CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen) test does not necessarily mean you have cancer.
CEA is a broad-spectrum tumor marker, but its specificity is not high. That said, elevated CEA can be caused by a variety of other causes in addition to its possible association with cancer.
Some benign diseases, such as colitis, pancreatitis, hepatitis, emphysema, and bronchial asthma, may also cause mild elevations in CEA levels.
In addition, smoking, pregnancy, cardiovascular disease, and certain autoimmune diseases may also cause CEA values to fluctuate.
Furthermore, some people with cancer may have CEA levels within the normal range. Therefore, CEA testing is only an auxiliary diagnostic method, and cancer cannot be diagnosed solely based on a positive CEA test.
If the CEA test result is positive, especially if it is significantly elevated, doctors usually combine the patient's clinical symptoms, signs, test results of other tumor markers, and imaging examinations (such as B-ultrasound, CT, magnetic resonance imaging, etc.), Pathological examinations are used to comprehensively determine whether cancer is present.