Don’t panic if CA199 level rises, it is not necessarily cancer.

CA199 is a glycoprotein related to digestive tract tumors. It is distributed in the pancreas, liver, gallbladder, intestines and other tissues of the fetus during the embryonic period; it also exists in small amounts in the pancreas, gallbladder and other parts of adults. The normal reference value of CA199 is ≤ 37U/ml. When suffering from pancreatic cancer, liver, gallbladder and gastrointestinal cancer, the level of CA199 in the blood can be significantly increased. In other words, an increase in CA199 in the blood may mean that you have a digestive tract tumor. Note that it is said here that it is possible, so what are the general causes of increased CA199?

What are the reasons for elevated CA199 values?

CA199 (carbohydrate antigen 199) is a tumor marker. It is highly specific to digestive tract tumors. If the CA199 value is elevated, you need to be alert to the presence of tumors in the digestive system. It is best to conduct further examinations and regular reexaminations. If it is a malignant tumor, it needs to be treated promptly and effective treatment measures should be taken.

Malignant diseases often lead to elevated CA199. When malignant diseases occur, tumor hypoxia will cause cell proliferation to accelerate, producing more CA199. Therefore, during the examination, elevated CA199 will appear. If cells are severely damaged by tumors, more CA199 will be released into the blood, and elevated CA199 will also appear. Malignant tumors are also prone to induce the formation of new blood vessels, leading to vascular infiltration and destruction, and the amount of CA199 entering the blood circulation will increase.

Elevated CA199 may also be caused by certain benign diseases, among which the most common ones are biliary inflammation, obstructive diseases, hepatitis, pancreatitis, etc. If you suffer from these diseases, during the examination, the CA199 in bile, intestinal digestive juice, and pancreatic juice will remain at a high level. These CA199 are mainly secreted from glandular epithelial cells. When inflammation occurs, the fluid in the lumen is not flowing smoothly, which will lead to increased vascular permeability and accelerated entry of lumen contents into the blood vessels, so serum CA199 will increase.

So how high does CA199 level increase to indicate a higher likelihood of cancer?

Under normal circumstances, if the value is only a few dozen or even a few values ​​higher than the normal range, it has no obvious clinical significance. It may be caused by other liver and gallbladder diseases such as cholecystitis, hepatitis, and cirrhosis. Usually, only when it is several times, dozens of times, or hundreds of times higher than the normal value, it is considered that cancer is more likely. If you are worried, you can use upper abdominal CT or pancreatic liver and gallbladder ultrasound to determine the cause.

So when you see an increase in CA199, don’t panic. Instead, see how much higher the value is and then decide what to do next.