Affiliations: Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ain Shams
Faculty of Medicine, Cairo, Egypt | Atomic Energy, NCRRT |
Note: [] Correspondence: Dr. Salah T. Fayed, Department of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology, Ain Shams University Hospitals, Abbassia, Cairo 11566, Egypt, Fax:
+202-484 7653, E-mail: ahmed_kassim@usa.net
Abstract: The role of the tumor markers CA125 and CA72-4 has been evaluated in
the diagnosis and management of ovarian cancer. Both markers were measured in
30 patients with proven epithelial ovarian cancer, 30 patients with benign
pelvic masses and 30 normal women. CA125 and CA72-4 were measured using the
luminometric immunoassay and immuno-radiometric assay respectively. All
patients with ovarian cancer were submitted to surgical staging and
cytoreduction followed by adjuvant platinum based chemotherapy for 36
courses. Fixing the specificity at 95%, CA125 had a sensitivity of 76.7% at a
cut-off 85u/ml while CA72-4 had a sensitivity of 70% at a cut-off 8.5 u/ml. The
combination of CA72-4 with CA125 increased the sensitivity to 95% while fixing
the specificity at 95%. Among seven cases with stage I and II ovarian cancer
five cases had CA125 level below 85 U/ml, three patients out of them had
CA72-4 above 8.5 U/ml. CA 72-4 could reflect the residual disease
following cytoreduction and could improve the detection of relapse by CA125.
CONCLUSION: CA72-4 could complement the standard tumor marker CA125 both in
diagnosis and follow up of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer.
