Cancer antigens 19.9 and 125 as tumor markers in patients with mucinous ovarian tumors.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION To determine the accuracy of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cancer antigen (CA) 15.3, CA 19.9, and CA 125 for diagnosis of mucinous ovarian cancer (MOC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Samples were collected preoperatively from patients with mucinous ovarian tumor. The following variables were analysed CEA, CA 15.3, CA 19.9, and CA 125. After surgery, histology and stage were determined according to FIGO-classification. Patients were classified into two groups according to the diagnosis of ovarian biopsy NOT MOC and MOC. RESULTS: The authors studied 94 patients with ages between 15 and 80 years (median = 43). Eighty-two patients were NOT MOC (68 mucinous ovarian cystadenomas and 14 mucinous borderline ovarian tumors) and 12 were MOC. All MOC patients were in FIGO Stages I or II. No statistically significant differences were found between MOC and NOT MOC patients according to CEA and CA 15.3 (p > 0.05). All MOC patients had abnormal serum CA 19.9 and/or CA 125 levels. Using CA 19.9 and CA 125, we performed a linear regression formula CA 19.9+125 = 0.00102 x CA 19.9 + 0.00057 x CA 125. AUCs values were 0.862 (p = 0.0002), 0.829 (p = 0.0021), and 0.911 (p = 0.0001) for CA 19.9, CA 125, and CA 19.9 + 125, respectively. CA 19.9 + 125 exhibited 95.1% specificity and 66.7% sensitivity, increased by 16.7% sensitivity compared with using only CA 19.9 or CA 125. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative CA 19.9 and CA 125 levels showed high diagnosis efficacy to predict whether a mucinous ovarian tumour is benign or malignant. Using both markers simultaneously increases the sensitivity for diagnosis of MOC.