High levels of pretreatment CA125 are associated to improved survival in high grade serous ovarian carcinoma

Background Serum levels of CA125 measured before any treatment have been evaluated in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) as a predictor of patient survival; however, results in survival index are controversial, as CA125 levels are influenced by several variables. Taking this into consideration, the present study evaluated the association of pretreatment levels of CA125 serum with the clinical stage, histology and differentiation grade of the tumor and the survival rate in a group of patients from an oncology referral center in Mexico, all of them diagnosed with ovarian carcinoma. This retrospective study consisted of 1009 patients with EOC, diagnosed between 2006 and 2013 at the National Cancerology Institute (Instituto Nacional de Cancerologia-INCan), considering only those with CA125 measurements before any chemotherapy or surgical cytoreduction. Patients with three years of medical follow-up having pretreatment CA125 value and simultaneous diagnoses of histological subtype, clinical stage and differentiation grade of the tumor (n = 656) were studied in order to determine their survival rate.