Dermatopathology: an abridged compendium of words. A discussion of them and opinions about them. Part 3. Dermatol Pract Conc.

CARCINOEMBRYONIC ANTIGEN: abbreviated CEA, is a glycoprotein found in certain normal epithelial tissues, and in some neoplasms composed of epithelial cells, especially adenomas and adenocarcinomas. Common neoplasms that contain carcinoembryonic antigen are adenocarcinomas of the gastrointestinal tract, lung, breast, ovary, endometrium, and cervix, medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, and, less frequently, squamous-cell carcinomas of the lung and cervix. Within normal eccrine and apocrine units, carcinoembryonic antigen is demonstrable in luminal cells of ducts and secretory cells in glands. Some authors maintain, incorrectly in our view, that investigation of carcinoembryonic antigen by immunoperoxidase techniques is helpful for distinguishing proliferations with eccrine differentiation from those with apocrine differentiation.