Pretreatment SCC Ag or CEA assays, as tumour-associated antigens, have been identified to be valuable in distinguishing high-risk patients requiring adjuvant therapy and in predicting prognosis in early-stage cervical cancer (Bae et al, 1997; Takeda et al, 2002; Reesink-Peters et al, 2005). This evidence concerns the gene CEACAM5 and cervical cancer.