EVALUATION OF TAG-72 (CA-72-4) SERUM MARK ER IN PRIMARY DIAGNOSIS IN OVARIAN-CANCER - A COMPARISON WITH CA-125

The value of the TAG-72 (CA 72-4) serum marker in primary diagnosis wa s investigated in 110 patients with histologically diagnosed ovarian c ancer. A. reference group consisted of 103 patients with benign pelvic masses. Compared to the well-established CA-125, TAG-72 showed a low sensitivity of 42 % in the detection of ovarian cancer. By contrast, w hen the cutoff level for TAG-72 was set at 6 U/ml, it showed a very hi gh specificity of 99 %. When the measurement of TAG-72 was combined to that of CA-125, improvements in both the specificity (as compared to a single CA-125 determination) and the sensitivity (as compared to a s ingle TAG-72 assay) were observed. In such a combined assay, our resul ts suggest that the best predictive value (positive and negative) was obtained if CA-125 is assigned a relatively high cut-off value (65 U/m l) in conjunction with a low cut-off level (3,2 U/ml or 4 U/ml) for TA G-72. In the present study, at threshold values of 65 U/ml respectivel y, a sensitivity of 86 %, a specificity of 83 % and a positive and neg ative predictive value of 85 % were obtained. In mucinous carcinomas o f the ovary, however, the additional TAG-72 determination did not lead to a better predictive power than did CA-125 measurement alone.