Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a well-known low cost biological tumour marker used in CC since 1965.6 Previous large studies have shown that elevated pre-operative CEA levels are associated with worse prognosis in patients with stage I and II disease, who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy, and for whom pre-operative CEA value of 2.35 ng/mL was defined as an optimal cut-off point for survival stratification.7 This evidence concerns the gene CEACAM5 and neoplasm.