Although limited biomarkers are available for predicting MM, pleural CEA seems to be a candidate tumor marker.[2,11] Wang et al[11] described that when the cut-off value was set to 1.43 ng/mL, the diagnostic accuracy of pleural CEA for MM among other malignant diseases (i.e., LC, lymphoma/leukemia) had a sensitivity of 83.7%, specificity of 61.1%, positive negative likelihood ratio of 2.15 and 0.27, respectively, similar to the results of this study. This evidence concerns the gene CEACAM5 and laryngotracheoesophageal cleft.