The value of CA 125 and CA72-4 in management of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer

The role of the tumor markers CA125 and CA72-4 has been evaluated in the di agnosis and management of ovarian cancer. Both markers were measured in 30 patients with proven epithelial ovarian cancer, 30 patients with benign pel vic masses and 30 normal women. CA125 and CA72-4 were measured using the lu minometric immunoassay and immunoradiometric assay respectively. All patien ts with ovarian cancer were submitted to surgical staging and cytoreduction followed by adjuvant platinum based chemotherapy for 3-6 courses. Fixing t he 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 combinati on of CA72-4 with CA125 increased the sensitivity to 95% while fixing the s pecificity at 95%. Among seven cases with stage I and II ovarian cancer fiv e 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 cyto reduction 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.