Clinical value of serum CA125, CA72-4, and Cu.Zn-SOD in epithelial ovarian cancer

Objective: To assess the value of serum CA125、CA72-4、and Cu.Zn-SOD in diagnosis and management of ovarian cancer. Methods: CA125、CA72-4、and Cu.Zn-SOD were measured using the radioimmunoassay. All markers were measured in 42 patients with proven epithelial ovarian cancer 、66 patients with benign ovarian disease and 15 healthy persons. CA125、CA72-4、and Cu.Zn-SOD were measured in 15 patients with ovarian cancer who were submitted to surgical staging and cytoreduction followed by adjuvant platinum based chemotherapy over 4 courses. Results: The CA125、CA72-4 and Cu.Zn-SOD levels of patients with proven epithelial ovarian cancer were higher than patients with benign ovarian disease ,and the CA125、CA72-4 and Cu.Zn-SOD levels of patients with benign ovarian disease were higher than healthy persons. For these enhanced cutoff limits being 85U/ml for CA125, 4.8U/ml for CA72-4, the combination of CA125 with CA72-4 increased the sensitiviry to 88.0% and the specificity to 86.0%. The CA125 and CA72-4 levels in patients with stage Ⅲ and stage Ⅳ of epithelial ovarian cancer were higher than patients with stage Ⅰand stage Ⅱ of epithelial ovarian cancer. There was a positive correlation between the CA125 levels and the clinical course, the correlation coefficient was 0.39 and the agreement rate is 67.6%. The combination of CA125 with CA72-4 increased the senitivity to 100% in detection of relapse. The CA125 and CA72-4 levels increased before clinical recurrence with a median lead time of 3 months. Conclusions: (1) When these cutoff limits are enhanced, the combination of CA125 with CA72-4 leads to an improved discrimination between malignant and benign ovarian disease. (2) Determination of CA125 levels may aid in monitoring the response to treatment in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer. (3) CA125 and CA72-4 levels increased before clinical recurrence with a median lead time of 3 months. (4) Determination of Cu.Zn-SOD levels may aid in discrimination patients from healthy females.