CEACAM5 and neoplasm: There were no significant differences among the groups with regard to age, sex, BMI, smoking status, deepness of infiltration, lymph node status, grade of differentiation, vascular invasion, perineural invasion and tumor location, whereas the patients with TTDpR > 4.5 weeks had significantly higher incidence of preoperative elevated CEA than those with TTDpR </ = 4.5 weeks (33% vs. 19%; P = 0.038).