CEACAM5 and cancer: However, when the sE-cad decrease in patient sera is associated with particular cancer characteristics (e.g., stage, size, and localization), therapy (e.g., before or after therapy; before or after surgery), or other clinical parameters (e.g., levels of markers such as CEA or other adhesion molecules), it becomes hard to generalize findings and extremely difficult to propose the sE-cad protein as prognostic marker in clinical trials.